and the glass zone shatters
by Domenic
Summary: On this side of the mirror, the Decepticons have a higher tolerance for humans.  The Autobots, on the other hand, don't really give much thought to the skin-jobs beneath their feet...  Shattered Glass/Mirrorverse Transformers Prime AU. UPDATE: CH.11
1. Chapter 1

**Title: and the glass zone shatters**

**Summary: On this side of the mirror, the Decepticons have a higher tolerance for humans. The Autobots, on the other hand, don't really give much thought to the skin-jobs beneath their feet... [Shattered Glass/Mirrorverse Transformers Prime AU]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers Prime.**

**A/N: Please remember to leave feedback. Thank you editoress and nellasaur and wherearemychips at tumblr for their feedback on this.**

**ETA: Some minor edits below with names, Cybertronian lingo/slang and times.**

Chapter 1

"Status report?"

"Drones have engaged, I'll be joining them shortly, Soundwave will explain the rest once you reach the bridge, Sir—"

Starscream steadied himself at the sudden vibration, his optics snapping to a surveillance screen. Soundwave was fixated too, yet also at a keypad and swiftly typing, checking an energon reading that had plummeted.

Smoke from the battle clouded the screen's image, but it was clear that the drones had won and were returning to the Nemesis.

"Scratch that Lord Megatron, the enemy's been taken care of," Starscream spoke into the commlink again. He growled, "Along with the energon, it's useless now—"

"Enough, I'll be at the bridge soon enough—then you can rant about the indignity of it all to your spark's content."

Despite himself, Starscream smirked. "Perhaps my Lord should stop and rest first? I know it can be exhausting after cracking your first joke—"

Starscream cut himself off when he saw that the drones weren't alone.

The autobot prisoner was battered and bleeding. It looked like he caught the brunt of the energon explosion. The blue mech fluid that dripped from injuries sustained shone stark, even bright against the red armor. The horn on his helm looked lonely, as if it were…missing its partner...yes, if Starscream imagined a pair of horns, saw the 'bot less dented and cracked, it looked a lot like—

Starscream's optics widened.

Soundwave raised his head from recording the loss of energon and the battle, bent it back down to continue typing—snapped it back up when he registered and recognized that particular autobot.

"Huh, Scream—"

And the seeker's claws were already snapping out even as he dimly registered Cliffjumper's voice turn mildly amused on the familiar, diminutive title (yes, it was definitely _him_).

"—long time no se—"

Soundwave barely heard the bridge entrance hiss open, he was already leaving the keypad and reaching for Starscream—futilely.

Cliffjumper was cut off by a horrible gasp as Starscream's claws sank into his chest and twisted just _right_...

Before the seeker leaned forward, Cliffjumper caught the blank fury in his red optics, a fury he dimly recognized, though it differed, as if it had only grown deeper over time. Close to his audio, Starscream whispered, "You should have_ listened_—"

And as Starscream's claw roughly twisted again in his chest cavity and made him groan, Cliffjumper could feel that claw around his spark start to tremble.

"—when I told you that I knew _nothing_..."

Starscream squeezed, and the spark went out. He whipped back his claw, stained in mech fluid that was still warm, more of it splattering on the floor. Cliffjumper fell forward, dead.

Soundwave blared a siren's warning, but too late on either side: Megatron slammed Starscream to the ground. Belatedly Soundwave realized he should've been paying more attention to the hiss of the opening bridge door heralding their master's entrance.

"Unless I give the word, you do _not_ kill a bound prisoner!" Megatron thundered, looming over his Second. "Not even to settle old accounts," he growled in a lower voice.

Starscream coughed, his frame shuddering as he struggled to rise. His eyes flashed at his superior, incensed. "_Why_?" He spat out his own mech fluid, adding to the blue on the floor. "Cliffjumper deserved no mercy or honor, and there would've been nothing to gain from him—"

The Second's voice cracked, becoming shriller as a very bitter smirk crossed his face. Head tilted curiously, Starscream looked up at Megatron, whose optics had darkened. "—oh, but that's what you wanted, isn't it? You wished to _interrogate_ him—"

Starscream's claws dug into the floor with a horrible screeching noise, his arms starting to tremble again.

Megatron looked down at his Second with a cold glance.

"You cannot let your emotions cloud your judgment like this—"

"I would do it again!" Starscream shouted in a voice made even shriller by growing rage and pain, defiance warping it further. Megatron's fist clenched tighter and the scowl on his face deepened, but Starscream shouted still, standing up and gesturing wildly. "And again and again—it was the _same_, he did the same to Jetfire, he deserved nothing less or more than that—_I would do it __**again**_—"

Starscream instinctively flinched as Megatron's fist snapped forward. He heard a clang and then—the seeker cracked an eye open, then the next as he saw Megatron's fist embedded in the wall very close to his face. He stared up at his Lord blankly, who looked back at him just as impassively.

Megatron swiftly removed his fist from the wall. He commented in an oddly calm, mildly questioning tone, "And yet, my dear Starscream, the dead have failed to return due to your actions."

Starscream exploded again. "I slaggin' know that—don't you _dare_ talk about Jetfire like—"

"You are the one who brought him up," Megatron reminded him in that same eerily serene voice. Starscream sputtered, incoherent with that still growing anger, his claws clenching and unclenching as if holding back attack.

Megatron's optics looked him up and down, unimpressed. "You don't look the calmer for it either."

"_That wasn't the damn point_!"

"Then what was?"

Their commlink crackled. Breakdown's voice was urgent: "Requesting emergency groundbridge for Knock Out and I right the frag now!"

Soundwave swiftly activated the ship's groundbridge. Megatron ordered the drones to remove Cliffjumper's body. Starscream stood at the ready, knowing at the moment that whatever his leader wanted to do with him over the revenge taken against all sense of order and honor would wait.

The familiar portal of light expanded, and out came Breakdown and Knock Out, who didn't look too severely damaged—except for the human sitting inside his vehicle mode.

"_What the hell is going on_?" A brown haired woman hissed, clenching a gun tight in her hand despite the handcuff around it, and the other.

"_Just get the slag out_!" Knock Out snapped, his door popping open, and the woman was out like a light.

Knock Out and Breakdown transformed, and the larger 'con scowled at Starscream, who wasn't disguising his shock at all, very conspicuously gaping at the human. And Soundwave somehow seemed even quieter, even more still.

Even Megatron stared. Until he said, "I assumed our 'no-contact' policy was clear enough to ban _pets_."

Knock Out weakly chuckled at his leader's only invitation to explain, and began with the autobot drones.

###

_**Earlier:**_

Knock Out tsked. "No sense of style, what are those Autobots thinking when they're designing their little drones?"

Those 'little' drones were actually larger than the Decepticons' own, but an uninspired bulk and clunk to their every step, though none of them were exactly a slouch in speed.

Still Knock Out lost them as soon as he could, playing the waiting game in some parking lot. Either they'd lose interest or—

Out of the corner of his hidden optic sensor in his rearview window, Knock Out saw a female human run over, a gun raised in her handcuffed wrists.

_Oh for the love of_—

The woman struck with the butt of the gun and what had to have been all of her body weight and a helluva adrenaline rush, breaking through his side door window.

Knock Out noted to self to look into stronger glass upgrades.

_I will not crush her keep cover I will not crush her keep cover—_

Playing around with human and Cybertronian language, Knock Out noted with some humor that the human was a fellow 'con in her own way. She quickly slithered inside the broken window, carefully treading around and hastily brushing aside glass shards. Then she slunk down and tried to hotwire him.

_Keep the slaggin' cover I will __**not**__ crush her_—goddamn, how dare some skin-job try to hijack him like any normal non-sentient car. Granted, he was devilishly handsome, even had some previous skin-jobs gaping and coveting while on this planet—actually, why hadn't anyone tried to hijack him before?

Knock Out felt the handcuffs rub against his insides again as the woman struggled to hotwire him. He realized with no small amount of irritation that his very first hijacker probably wasn't even thinking of what a sweet escape car she'd get—just anything with wheels at the moment would've been fine for her, little tasteless maggot...

His other rear view window optic sensor noticed the 'bot drones come back around—with Bulkhead and Arcee in tow this time.

_C'mon Bonnie, just give it up and hijack some other car, an ugly one for all you give a damn—_

Arcee headed unerringly in his direction, Bulkhead and the drones following her.

_To the pit with this_.

Knock Out revved his engine.

"Sit back, seatbelt on—"

And Knock Out sent said seatbelt wrapping around the runaway con, snapping her up and back against the seat, tying her down.

"—mind the shots, and enjoy the ride!"

"_The f_—?"

At least the convict kept some sense about her and didn't immediately fire her gun once he shot out of the parking lot before Arcee and the rest could corner them.

Knock Out swerved back and forth across different streets, searching for the most abandoned, but the autobots remained tight on his trail. So far his pursuers kept their cover, as they tended to do. Though they didn't draw a line at the 'bot drones popping out guns on the sides and blasting away.

"Stay down—"

The human twisted against his seatbelt, aiming her gun out his broken window.

"Scrap, _don't_—"

She fired at the autobots. They were too surprised at the sudden human appearance that the bullets struck true, though not leaving behind much impact.

_Great, the skin-job's engaged the enemy, now they're gonna slaggin' think she's with me_—

Finally Knock Out momentarily lost them down a tight corner into a dark alley. Figuring he only had a couple of seconds, he skidded to a halt, his seatbelt snapping away from the human convict.

"Wh—"

"Scram, Fleshie!"

She bolted out, clutching her gun tight, yet she gaped at him. Knock Out noted that her too soft optics were very green, and odd, small round symbols dotted her face.

"Best keep this between us," was all he said before tearing away, wheels screeching. The human had run down another alley.

Even when the 'bots finally caught up seconds later, Knock Out thought he'd successfully ditched the skin-job—until a pair of the drones peeled away from the main group and headed down another alley. Her alley.

Knock Out swore as he twisted back.

He activated his commlink. "Hey, Breakdown, gonna need some backup!"

"Don't let the party start without me," his partner responded, part-joking, part-eager, and part-dead serious.

"Just to shake things up, there's a little skin-job we'll have to play keep-away with—I'll explain later..."

Breakdown sounded really caught off guard, an instinctive shocked bark of a laugh crackling across the commlink. "_This_, I can't wait to hear."

The drones were bearing down on the running human, still handcuffed, that couldn't help with her speed at all...

Knock Out blasted forward, striking one drone and forcing him into the other, flipping it.

The human retreated, ducking as the drone flew over and crashed ahead of her. As that one got up and transformed along with its twin, Knock Out realized to his dismay that the skin-job wouldn't be out of his way any time soon—they were in another alley that was rapidly getting crowded by Cybertronians blocking all safe exit for a human.

To her credit, the convict seemed to realize this as she still edged backward, gripping her gun tight in shaking hands even as her eyes darted around for any escape.

Fixing her with one hard look and just pinpointing her location at the moment, Knock Out mentally took a breath then pounced, flicking out his electric prod and swinging at the drone farthest away from the human.

The second drone hung back, shooting. The other drone may've dodged his prod's strike, but Knock Out shoved him into the path of his twin's blasts.

With one optic Knock Out watched the drone shoot its own comrade; with the other, he noted the human dashing past a hanging electric sign and behind a dumpster for some cover, but carefully positioned so as to flee if that cover quickly turned into an obstacle.

"Hey, Paint-job," and Bulkhead's fist shot out by way of greeting, a strike Knock Out barely deflected as his attention was snapped back to the fight and away from the skin-job's shelter. "Where's your buddy Breakdown? That fragger's never far behind when you're involved—"

"Five energon cubes says he'll be here in a nanoclick to wipe the floor with you." Knock Out offered the mock-friendly wager as he deflected Arcee's silent strike, her electric knives sent flying off course, one embedding in the wall not far above the human's dumpster...

His concentration broke again, unused to minding a sentient being so slaggin' small. Knock Out's attention only returned in time to see Bulkhead's fist fly and—

Knock Out was thrown down, but he swiped the legs out from under Bulkhead with his electric prod as he fell. The medic rolled back up quickly, but couldn't press his attack against the large autobot as Arcee shot at him with his blasters. He retreated, dodging and deflecting her lasers. Knock Out hadn't forgotten the other drone that had shot its own twin by accident—nor how handy that trick was, especially with the impulsive drone immediately going straight for his back. Knock Out leapt out of Arcee's line of fire, her shots now taking down the drone that had tried to take his back.

But Knock Out's landing turned awkward when he realized he was about to slam into the human's dumpster. Scrap it all, he skidded and tripped—and Bulkhead immediately disarmed him and wrapped him in a humiliating and down-right painful bear hug. Knock Out had heard better than his own servos straining, cracking as Bulkhead squeezed tight and hard—scrap, his optics were flickering—

"_**Little fragger**_-!" Bulkhead shouted as something shot through one of his optics, shattering it. _Nice to know I'm not the only one in need of some glass upgrades_, Knock Out thought a bit light-headedly, even as he swiftly broke out of Bulkhead's grip at the first chance and knocked the larger Cybertronian back down with a particularly nasty elbow strike.

Knock Out picked up his electric prod, then turned in the direction of the shot, expecting to find his partner—but instead he looked back down at the dumpster, the human's gun raised and still aimed at Bulkhead, frozen in shock at her shot working so well.

Before he could really comprehend, Knock Out glanced at Arcee's sudden noise—the medic ducked as Breakdown threw the two-wheeler past him.

Yet his partner didn't look pleased, his optics gaping at the human—who had suddenly aimed her gun at him, her eyes widening even more.

"Idiot, he's with me!" Knock Out snarled at her, and she flinched, readjusting her aim behind them—Knock Out followed her line of sight, at Arcee and Bulkhead getting back up.

"You didn't mention the human was armed," Breakdown said with forced lightness as he dashed for Bulkhead, fist raised.

Knock Out dashed after him, his own prod raised. "Excuse me if I was a little preoccupied!"

But the medic's optics widened as Arcee's blast shot straight past him for the human's dumpster.

_Scrap._ Even as Knock Out instinctively skidded to a halt and tried to double back, he hoped the blasted skin-job he actually slaggin' owed ran in time, since he wouldn't make it—

The human did flee her shelter, throwing herself on the ground as the dumpster blew up. Arcee did not let up, and Knock Out gave out a feral hiss as he stepped in front of the skin-job, deflecting the blasts with his prod.

The human scrambled to her feet and tried to run off again, but in all the wrong directions.

"Not so close—no, the other way, you stupid—"

The convict stretched up her arms as far away from her body as she could, holding them as far apart from each other as they could—and drove them in the path of a deflected laser blast. The shot cut through the handcuffs' connecting chain easily, and miraculously, not a hair was scorched on her small body.

"—er, genius." Knock Out felt profoundly stupid for not thinking of shooting her handcuffs' chain off earlier.

But as Breakdown was suddenly tossed straight into him and the partners rolled painfully over and over each other on the concrete, Knock Out figured he could be forgiven for his lapse of judgment in this case where everything happened so fast and he was not expecting any non-agent humans at all.

_If we actually get up alive in the next nanoclick, we're getting out of here, even with the skin-job._

"Breakdown's mine, but his buddy? Capture or—?"

"No ransom; Prime said last time it's better to leave Megatron without his doctor—"

Knock Out and Breakdown scrambled to disentangle. The medic's optics widened as he saw the human run toward them—idiot, safety was the _other_ way, there were less Cybertronians clogging the alleyway now, and with the 'bots otherwise occupied, her path was surely clear enough to—

Knock Out groaned as he heard the sounds of more 'bot drones approaching.

The human raised her gun again, but not for any lucky shots against Cybertronian optics—this time she shot at the electric sign Arcee and Bulkhead passed under. Sparks shot out from the ruined sign, falling over the autobots along with some broken shards. The 'bots were caught off guard for a few seconds—it was all the distraction the 'cons needed.

Breakdown sucker punched his rival while Knock Out slashed across Arcee's face and down her torso, thoroughly ruining her paint job among other dubiously more critical things.

"That's enough, we're done," Knock Out said, gesturing to the autobots' incoming reinforcements.

Breakdown nodded, but then frowned. "The human—"

"She's coming too!" The medic snapped loudly enough that said human heard him. He shifted back to vehicle mode and drove up to the convict that was dashing toward him. His door opened and she jumped in, his seatbelt wrapping securely around her again.

Knock Out tore out of the alley with Breakdown in his own vehicle mode racing after him as the 'bots shots fired after them. Bulkhead cursed Breakdown's name, his expletives soon mixing with Knock Out's own curses at the human to stop firing at the enemy, it was no good now. Breakdown's own curse was brief and sudden as he hailed the Nemesis for emergency groundbridge.

###

"…and that's about it." Knock Out squashed the urge to wince at how foolish that sounded, but really, he was still having trouble believing that actually happened.

Soundwave seemed like a statue, Starscream's face was firmly planted in his clawed hand, and Megatron's arms had crossed against his chest by this point.

"'And that's about it?'" The human repeated incredulously, her soft optics looking like they'd short circuit any minute. She kept a death grip on her gun, though it hadn't been aimed at any of the Decepticons on board the Nemesis. "For the last goddamn time, where the hell am I, what's going on-?"

And then she stabbed a finger at the puddle of mech fluid Knock Out and Breakdown had been wondering about since they arrived, but hadn't really found the time to question it with the unexpected skin-job appearance. Curiously, Starscream flinched as she began to shout, "And what the hell is that, is that blood, is that robot blood, is—" and then her finger darted back to Knock Out and Breakdown, waving frantically at their own mech fluid dripping from scrapes and gashes. "—I know it's not theirs, they're not bleeding to death, _that looks like someone bled to death_—"

Starscream twitched again, and opened his mouth to speak—but he flinched and instantly deflated as Megatron raised an arm for silence.

"Human, be still, and we will explain," Megatron said softly, but the human flinched as if he'd shouted it. Granted, her fleshy audio receptors were small—perhaps no matter how hard he tried, Megatron's voice would always be loud to her kind. But still she stayed quiet and seemed attentive.

Megatron's optics lingered on her for a second. Then, he spoke.

**A/N: The above human convict is **_**not**_** an OC—this Mirrorverse fic will have some crossover elements, especially with the human characters. The above crossover character's supposed to sorta properly give up her name in the next part, but she's from LOST, another show I don't own. I needed the convict to try to highjack Knock Out—the idea intrigued me too much. I had her try and succeed without shooting her gun at the windshield since one of her first thoughts would be to preserve ammo, and I think adrenaline rush combined with stronger-than-she-seems (she's been a convict on the run for a while) would enable her to break his window with just the force of her body and a strike of the gun. But if that seems pressing it, she could still pull the trigger and shoot out his window. And as for Cybertronian glass v. human gun (not even shot) and human adrenaline—well, I thought I'd make a gag about it. Maybe it's carelessness, underestimating human weapons; maybe the glass weakened when he reconfigured to human car alt form, and he can readjust the strength later; maybe when taking up a disguise alt form he got more of a perfect match with a human car than he thought—either way, KO's glass broke, and I plan to keep it that way. But since that was able to break, I figured the human convict could get an admittedly lucky (in terms of strength, not aim, the experienced convict's got accurate aim) shot and actually break through Bulkhead's glass optic. At first I thought just crack it with her shot, that was enough distraction for Bulk, but I couldn't resist this twist on making him lose an eye to a human like his rival in the canon 'verse.**

**Is it 'Knock Out' or 'Knock Out?' **

**Is it 'Jetfire' or 'Skyfire?'**

**This mirrorverse's Starscream and Cliffjumper's history should be explained later. **

**Please leave behind some feedback. Hope you enjoyed. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: and the glass zone shatters**

**Chapter: Two**

**Summary: On this side of the mirror, the Decepticons have a higher tolerance for humans. The Autobots, on the other hand, don't really give much thought to the skin-jobs beneath their feet... [Shattered Glass/Mirrorverse Transformers Prime AU]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers Prime.**

**A/N: Please remember to leave feedback. Thank you editoress and nellasaur and wherearemychips at tumblr for their feedback on this. Switching up the summary until I find the right one. I'll try to answer reviewers individually through pm. For those not logged in, I'll try to reply to them at the end of the chapter.**

**This also should be in continuity with my other mirrorverse!TFP fic written for the TF-Prime Livejournal community's August challenge, "it's science," unless noted otherwise.**

Ch.2

"I am Lord Megatron. You—"

Starscream cut him off, though not without a nervous edge to his voice, "What is your name, Miss—?"

Soundwave actually twitched, and Knock Out and Breakdown stared.

It wasn't unlike Starscream to interrupt, nor unheard of for Megatron to possibly be—at the very least—irritated. Or let it slide in the heat of the moment, especially if Starscream had a point that was really quite valid, as was the current case.

Knock Out was personally getting tired of just referring to the stranger as another skin-job with all the time she was taking becoming an acquaintance.

Breakdown figured if Megatron used her name, gave her a personal address or crap like that, the skin-job would be calm and look less like she was about to short-circuit any minute.

But Soundwave had twitched. Had actually visibly _reacted_. Again the two wheeler 'cons wondered about the conspicuous puddle of mech fluid—surely that was connected to Soundwave's actual fraggin' twitch and Starscream being more anxious than usual and whatever the hell they just missed while bringing in a very unwanted stray back to the ship.

Caught off guard, the human spoke the shaky truth: "Kate."

"Miss Kate?" Starscream instinctively said, testing the name and title, uncertain.

The convict shook her head. "You can just call me Kate, um—Sir—?"

"This is Starscream, my Second-in-Command," explained Megatron, and though his tone had been completely neutral, the younger Decepticon still averted his optics to the floor.

"Kate, you are currently on board our ship, the Nemesis." Catching the look on the female human's face, Megatron reassured her, "We are not in space, but within Earth's atmosphere still."

Megatron paused as the woman sat down heavily, the gun now in her lap.

He then continued, "We are sentient, robotic organisms—far different from the robots your kind have constructed," Megatron began, recalling the misunderstandings and early questions at first contact with humanity. "Nor do we hail from Earth. We come from the planet Cybertron, now dead."

"…Dead?"

"Uninhabitable." Kate flinched at Megatron's tone, thick and heavy with something beyond any negative emotion she could pin down with a name.

"Before, our people were one, all Cybertronian. Still, we had our class differences; and arguments over energon, the fuel and life-blood of our people." Megatron's voice was growing more and more clipped, short acidic sentences. "Civil war broke out. It's been centuries."

Kate thought of her father's military service, of him going overseas... Her mind snapped away, alighting on Fight Club—but with robots in this case. And immediately split-personality alien robots that could crush her came to mind, and that was the last thing she needed to think about...

"In that time, the conflict has broken into two factions. Those that attacked you were the autobots. Knock Out, the ship's doctor—"

"Charmed," said the red 'con, smirking and giving a mock salute. (Kate felt her stomach drop as she recalled that she'd tried to hijack him, her hands precise and prying, and he'd been _alive_ the whole time...)

"—Breakdown, his medical assistant and my weapons specialist—"

"Hey," muttered the large 'con in a very dry voice.

"—Soundwave, my communications chief—"

He didn't respond at all.

"—Starscream, the rest of the crew and I are Decepticons."

Megatron pointed out an angular symbol on his armor for emphasis.

Before he could explain, the girl began in a shaky voice, "The…a-autobots, they have a different tattoo?"

"A different mark, yes."

There was a low beep, and the human turned to Soundwave, as a symbol flashed across his facial screen: another face like the Decepticon one, but more square-like in shape rather than angular.

"And that's the Autobot-?"

Soundwave nodded, and yet the gesture combined with no other emotion she could comprehend unnerved the human. Kate was barely able to suppress her wince.

"So…with your planet…dead…are you looking for a new home—?"

Megatron shook his head, yet behind him Kate spied his crew's reactions: Starscream's jaw clenched, Knock Out and Breakdown shared a flat look, even one of Soundwave's claws tapped a tense, impatient yet rhythmic beat against his hip for a fraction of a second. "As the war has raged on, both sides have hidden stores of energon on other planets, including yours. That is why we are here."

The human again thought back to how she'd tried to hijack the red car—Knock Out, who talked and transformed into a large robot and guarded her and who had a name of his own, who was a _he_, not an _it_.

"So you're—you're all cars hiding out on Earth?"

Immediately Kate regretted her question when her eyes really comprehended the wings on Starscream and Soundwave. How odd, to see jet plane-like wings on robots that were sorta humanoid—or at the very least also bipedal and with arms, even if those ended in claws...

Starscream and Knock Out glanced at each other; the former scoffed while the latter smirked. Kate fought back the embarrassed red flush from her cheeks around her freckles.

"Lord Megatron, Soundwave, a good portion of the rest of the crew and I all have some sort of flying vehicle native to your planet for our alt mode," Starscream said with some indignant pride, ignoring Knock Out's growing Cheshire cat's grin.

Kate noted at this point that Breakdown was rolling his eyes—optics?—at the two's silent exchange, some inside joke supposedly—alien robots with inside jokes? Kate tried to ignore all the scifi movies with alien contact she'd ever seen; she didn't want to be prejudiced at the moment.

"Regardless," Megatron continued, and the three younger Decepticons mostly snapped out of whatever silent camaraderie they'd just had, throwing on a cool mask that still didn't hold a candle to Soundwave's. "We are not a complete secret."

"The government," Kate said flatly.

"The government," Megatron confirmed in an even flatter voice. "The autobots have made similar connections to other human groups—groups your government counts separate and as opposition to them."

Kate felt a new familiar apprehension come over her as she learned the Decepticons around her had some government involvement. The cuffs still rubbed irritatingly at her wrists. She left half a mind on that as the alien leader grunted, sounding very ironic.

"Granted, that's the summary," Megatron finished, staring at the human who'd begun to chew her lip.

"Cliff notes of the cliff notes," muttered Knock Out behind his hand. Starscream elbowed him. Breakdown shook his head while Soundwave actually ran a claw down his featureless face. Megatron kept his considering glance on the human.

She looked up at all of them.

They all began to wonder if she'd bite through her fleshy lips and start to bleed all over the ship's floor.

Now that Kate had more time to take it all in, it still felt like her brain would explode.

The very surreal silence was broken by a loud, sudden beep.

It wasn't from Soundwave.

Yet it was him that still went immediately to a miscellaneous computer station and clicked a few buttons.

Kate startled when Starscream's sarcastic voice crackled from Soundwave, though the actual Starscream was standing right there with his mouth shut and what the _hell_— "Oh joy of joys, it's Agent Fowler again—"

The human stood up and began to back away, eyeing the undersides of alien computer panels large enough for her to hide under, though that would surely be the first place the Decepticons would look if their relationship with their government contact was sound enough to assist in securing the nation's convicts—

By some stroke of luck, a door hissed open. In the entrance were a pair of other large Decepticons that were like identical twins or something (not unlike some of the duplicate autobots that had attacked her earlier), and between them they carried a small tank and hose of alien design.

Kate took her chance—it probably wasn't the better choice. But she didn't think much would come from trying to talk it out with the Decepticons—maybe more like beg them—and for what, asylum, was that the term? 'Don't give me up to the freakin' feds, please Lord Megatron Sir?' They probably wouldn't even understand a fake doe-eyed pleading look from her.

Trying to blackmail them was a laughable idea—they wouldn't have told her anything unless they were certain their secret would stay safe. And they were giant alien robots that could still crush her if they wanted to (split personality or not). And they had some government sanction, with human officials who would be all too eager to paint her insane if she threatened to breathe a word of this. The government wouldn't bother bargaining with her if they knew they could win, surely.

So Kate ran. (She always did.)

Fast and hard, hoping the twin robots with the tank and hose she passed would be too surprised to notice; even better, if she was beneath their notice, she was certainly running past only their feet.

Her green eyes darted around the large halls of the ship.

At best, she'd just bought herself some time.

The door hissed shut behind her, clearly automatic.

###

The two Eradicons froze, both wondering if their sensors and optics were on the fritz, or had a human just scurried past them?

By the way their commander and superior officers were staring in their direction—except for Soundwave, who'd quickly glanced away and returned to typing rapidly at a station with a curiously renewed fervor—the Eradicons guessed their readings were accurate.

"Runs fast for a small thing," Breakdown murmured as his partner's fists clenched.

"I'll get her." Knock Out snapped with very clear frustration as he stomped ahead. Stupid skin-job was gonna get lost and probably curl up into a ball as her brain fried from all the new, foreign stimuli coming at her in a very short amount of time. Or worse, she'd actually get into something and mess it up, his medical bay—but no, they had security that was more than enough for a human unprepared for the Nemesis, it was just dumb luck she was able to flee the bridge. Then again, some of the Nemesis' security protocols could be quite lethal for a human—Knock Out quickened his step.

"No, Starscream will find her," Megatron ordered, and immediately Knock Out stopped and looked to his leader. All optics were on Megatron now, though his had flicked to his Second.

"Soundwave will neutralize the security protocols that may harm her—"

Breakdown's recorded soundbite crackled from Soundwave as his claws pressed one final key. "Already done."

"—and you are to be her escort while Agent Fowler is here. But do not alert him to her presence without my permission." Starscream looked mutinous, and it occurred to Knock Out that if Megatron wished to delegate sparkling-sitting to anyone, he could've selected one of the lowest rank, the Eradicons. Even one from those on the bridge right now—not his Second-in-Command, normally present for a meeting with the American government liaison.

But Starscream's optics darted to the dark blue mech fluid as the Eradicons fired up the hose and washed the mess away. Closing his optics, Starscream nodded his quiet assent to Megatron; he then swept out of the hissing door without a word.

Megatron turned to Knock Out and Breakdown (who knew better than to ask right now about some 'bot's life blood on the floor). His optics scanned their wounds. "Med bay, now. Return to the bridge when I give the word."

"After you shoo our dear liaison out?" Knock Out asked with a certain quirk to his grin as he and Breakdown left.

"Just remember the bridge is off limits until I say," was all Megatron said.

Once the medic and his partner were gone, the Eradicons glanced up at their master, uncertain. Cliffjumper's mech fluid had been washed off, and they'd quickly switched the hose to gush strong bursts of hot air over it, drying the cleaning liquid.

"Return to your regular duties."

The drones nodded and left with their tank and hose.

Megatron finally faced Soundwave. "Grant Fowler's landing request. Send up a team of Eradicons to help him down."

Soundwave obeyed.

**A/N: Playing around with exposition in this case was interesting, since I don't think Mirror!Megatron would bring up the enemy leader Optimus Prime or that they were once so close they were like brothers to a human stranger in their midst right off the bat. Hope it's pretty clear that "blah blah" is how Soundwave speaks through others' recordings. I've been thinking about it, and right now, I see Carl Lumby as Soundwave's voice. I would be so pleased if that became canon—because I'm pretty sure that it'll be canon that Soundwave will only speak with his own voice for dramatic effect (since says that Soundwave can use his own voice, he just chooses not to.) This is pretty much 3****rd**** person omniscient POV…so, like, more than one POV is used. On that note, I hope the human POV was all right—right now she's meant to be a sort of new lens to look at the Cybertronians through, a sort of narrator, but since it's her POV some of her own history's filtered through. **

**Chance O'Neal: Yes, it's Kate Austen from LOST. Ohman, I love Sawyer, he's one of my favorites from LOST—the first character from LOST I fell in love with actually. Glad you enjoyed Mirror!Starscream still killing Mirror!Cliffjumper, though for different motives. I adjusted the summary since though part of the thing with the Mirror!Autobots is literal, they can still show some discretion with even creatures they think terminally inferior.**

**Jacob shives: Glad you liked it.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: and the glass zone shatters**

**Chapter: ****Three**

**Summary: On this side of the mirror, the Decepticons ****have a higher tolerance for humans. The Autobots, on the other hand, don't really give much thought to the skin-jobs beneath their feet... [Shattered Glass/Mirrorverse Transformers Prime AU]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers Prime.**

**A/N: Please remember to leave feedback. Thank you editoress and nellasaur and wherearemychips at tumblr for their feedback on this. **** Switched up the summary again. I'll try to answer reviewers individually through pm. For those not logged in, I'll try to reply to them at the end of the chapter.**

**This also should be in continuity with my other mirrorverse!TFP fic written for the TF-Prime Livejournal community's August challenge, "it's science," unless noted otherwise.**

**Chapter 1 edited for minor changes.**

"I'm already in a foul enough mood as it is, so I suggest if you don't want to be confined to the brig for the remainder of your stay here, you will come out right now, 'lost' or not!"

Starscream finally stopped, his fists clenched as his shriek echoed around the hall. He knew it cracked near the end, he hated that lack of complete control over his own damn voice.

His optics darted to Kate as she slunk around a corner coming into view. _But as long as it got results..._

Starscream watched the way the human's hand clenched her gun, slowly walking toward him.

The Seeker knelt down, offering his claw. Still Kate hesitated. Her hand twitched around the gun.

Starscream did his best to keep his face neutral and hide the frustration roiling around inside. He would leave it up to her. With only Cybertronians around her, there was surely no real risk in that, and more the chance that she might calm down.

She half raised the gun, either to foolishly shoot or give up her weapon to the Decepticons' Second-in-Command. Kate did neither, instead holstering the gun in her back pocket.

The human carefully climbed into his claw, and with equal care, Starscream stood up.

Still striving for caution, Starscream reached out with one clawed finger from his other hand, hooking it carefully around one of Kate's wrists.

The human grew very still, and Starscream quickly clipped off her cuff with a slight twist of his claw. Just as swift, he took her other wrist and cut the last cuff away.

Rubbing her wrists, Kate looked up at Starscream—puzzled, wary still, but there was a glimmer of something close to calm. "Thanks."

Starscream grunted. "They were useless either way."

He began to move her to his shoulder.

"Wait—"

Had he been too quick? Starscream snarled, "Relax, I'm just—"

"No, I mean the cuffs—"

And they finally slid off his palm and to his feet, softly clanking as they landed.

The girl's cheeks flushed, and Starscream had no idea why. The red in her skin made its strange dots even starker in the lighting.

"I didn't mean—should we just leave them—?"

Starscream scoffed. "Big time 'con, afraid of adding littering to her record?"

The girl winced, and Starscream's jaw clenched; that came out wrong. And pretty damn unnecessary. Instead of inserting his foot deeper into his mouth, the Seeker bent down and picked up the broken cuffs.

"I just wanted to put them in my pocket," Kate mumbled, eyes on the cuffs pinched between his claws. Starscream was faintly surprised she didn't snap back with her own scathing response, given how ornery he truly had been.

Starscream first settled Kate in the crook of his shoulder, then dropped the cuffs in her hands, and immediately she shoved them in her jacket's pockets.

Starscream continued his walk, awkwardly—he was very conscious of the human on his shoulder and wondering if his stride was too fast—

"So, your shitty mood—anything to do with the—that was your kind's blood, wasn't it, there on the, um, bridge, I guess?"

Of course she'd bite back.

"I imagine it's the same as why you're wanted, given the way you holster your weapon," Starscream snapped as his pace quickened.

Inwardly he admitted his Master was correct, he needed a better grasp of his emotions. Had he not started it? He shouldn't have shoved back so hard against the human's own counterstrike.

Kate's eyes were suddenly an odd mix of fire and emptiness, but slowly she nodded her head.

The crackling of his commlink saved Starscream from even trying to think of a response to that.

"Just checking in, making sure you didn't groundbridge our guest to Egypt," Knockout's smooth voice cut in. "Though it's probably nice this time of year..."

"Tempting," Starscream grumbled, ignoring the look Kate gave him, and the way she sort of gave up and just held his shoulder tight, though undoubtedly she was still listening closely. "Maybe I'll just return her to your care instead."

"That would involve you coming down to the med bay, and now's not the best time."

"Why?" Starscream asked immediately, his teasing voice replaced by something on edge.

"Breakdown and I are fine, nothing serious," Knock Out reassured his commander, but the medic's voice was still too light. Finally he dropped that altogether and his voice grew naturally lower. "Cliffjumper's body is here for dismantling later, and given how on edge you were back on the bridge and—well, everything else..."

"Understood," Starscream muttered, trying to suppress his wince, and failing. By the Pit, he was a mess.

"Going out for a flight," Starscream growled, about to shut off his comm's active line.

"And the sk—Kate?"

"She's coming with," the Seeker snapped, then finally clicked the comm off. He steadily avoided looking at the human as he made his way topside.

###

"Sounds like it could've gone better," muttered Breakdown, and Knock Out just shrugged beneath his fingers from his place on the med table.

His partner hissed though. "Dumb-aft, don't move—"

"You know what they say about doctors as patients," came Knock Out's sing song reply.

Breakdown growled, but said nothing more, and Knock Out was more careful at staying still.

Both 'cons glanced at the dead Autobot at one of the other med tables opposite them.

_Starscream had been missing for a little over a deca-cycle__—and now Jetfire wasn't answering his commlink on another frustrated search for the Seeker. But Soundwave had still received a signal from him, slightly altered to include a loud emergency code. Soundwave had found the code so peculiar, it seemed to have unsettled him; he actually wondered aloud in a terse voice if the old flyer had gotten himself captured in a desperate attempt to find Starscream and lead the rest of them to their location... _

_Lord Megatron's own voice had been calm when reminding Soundwave that they simply had to focus on following Jetfire's trail, but Knock Out and Breakdown were still disquieted. _

_They'd soon entered a ruined building that was little different from the rest of the abandoned city. Knock Out rather thought it was a perverse game of warm-and-cold when they kept bypassing Autobot guards__—clearly they were getting somewhere, surely Starscream was here along with Jetfire, perhaps Soundwave had been correct in his theory..._

_They were a few feet from Jetfire's symbolic dot of yellow on Soundwave's screen when the signal was lost. The dot was gone._

_Immediately Megatron raised his cannon arm, and Knock Out, Breakdown and Soundwave instinctively took a step back. They would never forget that look on their leader's face._

_The wall blew out. It didn't seem to have cracked the ceiling Starscream was chained to though._

_Knock Out and Breakdown moved in tandem without a word, as Megatron and Soundwave provided them with cover and engaged the Autobots as distraction. Knock Out immediately went to Starscream, Breakdown swiftly shot down the __electric chain that suspended him, and the Seeker fell into the medic's arms._

_Knock Out felt chilled by how quiet Starscream was, though he was awake. Blue mech fluid dotted his face as if splattered in front of him (not his own life-blood). __His red optics were wide and staring, looking far past Knock Out._

_The medic followed his gaze, and saw Breakdown at Jetfire's slumped figure, shaking his head. _

_Immediately Knock Out started to pull Starscream away, he had to get the Seeker out of there right the frag now._

_That stirred Starscream. He fought against the medic's hold, his voice grew more shrill as he called to the dead flyer, "Fire, Fire, __**Jetfire**__—!" _

_"There's nothing we can do for him now!" Knock Out snapped as he fought to pull the Seeker back to the hole Megatron had blown out._

_"We can't leave him__—!"_

_"He's dead, and no one else is fraggin' joining him-!"_

_In between Starscream's chemical rush fueled by loss and Knock Out's own fueled by protectiveness, the medic won out, dragging the Seeker out over his protesting screams._

_Eventually escaping with one less comrade than they'd hoped for, the Decepticons had holed up in another ruin of the city. Megatron and Soundwave stood guard while Knock Out and Breakdown tended to Starscream. It would've been preferable to __return to their current base, but Starscream needed immediate medical attention. Not to mention the 'Bots were still in pursuit and were otherwise cutting them off from headquarters. Shockwave and the rest would be on edge by now, but they'd been given strict orders to hold the fort down until their return._

_By this point__, Starscream had resumed his quiet and blank stare, though Knock Out had taken care to clean his face, as if it would stop the Seeker from feeling his comrade's life-blood on his cheek... _

_Still Starscream didn't react again, and Knock Out's own face became blank as he continued to work. Breakdown regarded both doctor and patient, now equally blank- and hollow-looking, with a clenched jaw, even as he expertly passed his partner the medical supplies._

Both 'Cons ignored Cliffjumper for the rest of the session on a distant mudball that wasn't home and would never **be** home (not that home had been kind to either of them lately, even before it finally kicked the bucket).

###

"I'll cut straight to the point," Fowler said as he offered a disk to Soundwave without any greeting. The younger 'con quickly inserted the disk into a terminal altered to play human technology, and handed its human-sized remote control to Fowler. Megatron watched the American liaison carefully, nothing his heightened anxiety.

"Some of our undercover agents with the local police brought to our attention a recent rash of disappearances in Jasper, once they received evidence that suggested the kidnappers weren't human."

Megatron's optics narrowed at the screen, ghostly squares flickering to life.

"We're at seven now," Fowler said, as if reciting pure data.

Their pictures ran from top to bottom. Dates soon ran below them.

"Those are when they went missing."

Megatron noted the pictures were not organized by chronological order of those dates. From the top left corner to the bottom right corner, it went more from old to young.

"Jeremy Culton, 87; Peter Reilley, 62; Linda Terrance, 41; Serena Maiz, 23; Jackson Darby, 16; Miko Nakadai, 15; Rafael Esquivel, 12," Fowler noted detachedly, though that same emotion did not quite reach his eyes.

Megatron's optics scanned the human faces, left to right. He listened to Soundwave click a few keys, copying the images.

"We only realized the pattern between the ages once we started to suspect the 'Bots."

Fowler pressed a key on his remote, and all the images except Nakadai's left. Hers grew larger, her grin stretching out and looking even more cheerful as a picture of a cell phone appeared next to it. The phone was in an evidence bag.

An audio bar appeared next, its setting set to 'pause,' its time code at zero.

"We got a copy of Nakadai's 911 call before forensics had a listen straight from her phone," Fowler said as he clicked another button, and the audio bar played.

Nakadai's voice crackled, her voice high and taut.

"Yeah, this really huge and green pickup truck just totaled this motorcycle, the driver was thrown off—"

Already Megatron and Soundwave were on edge, listening even more closely. Soundwave's own systems were recording every word.

"—we're at the school, at—at—_ohmygod, the truck just—robot, it's a robot, the truck's a robot, they're both robots, the bike, it's—they're_—"

"Miss, please—" the emergency operator began.

Nakadai's shout crackled across the audio.

"Miss, what's going—?"

"Bulk, we already have our target—"

Megatron's optics narrowed to slits, even as the quiet and stillness around Soundwave deepened.

"'Cee, the fleshie caught us—"

"_Let go of me, you_—"

"And you already have her in hand, your job's half done, just tighten your damned fingers—"

"Ratchet wants 'em alive—"

"Like I said, we already have his target—"

"He could always use more—"

An exasperated sigh. "Fine, fine! Just shut her up—"

Nakadai screamed louder.

"_**Miss, who's with you, who's there**_—?"

"You have the sedative—"

"Fraggin' Wrecker—"

"Look, if your hands are full with the other one, I could—"

Nakadai's voice thinned and faded.

The emergency operator called out to her one last time before the audio bar stopped.

Its time code was a little over a minute.

"Bulk, we already have our target—" Soundwave repeated Arcee's voice, an echo made even eerier due to coming so soon after first hearing it amid a girl's screaming.

"That was Darby. Both him and Nakadai were abducted at the same time and place." Fowler then turned to Megatron. "Do you have any idea why Ratchet would want humans?"

"Specifically, no," Megatron said, at the moment trying to distance himself from his bitter relief that Starscream did not experience this meeting without any warning of Ratchet's involvement. "But in general, Ratchet likes to experiment."

Fowler's jaw clenched at the acidic way the Decepticon ground that last sentence out.

Out of the corner of his optic, Megatron noted Soundwave stare very hard at the screen of the smiling girl, her phone and the audio bar.

Megatron took a moment to shut his optics as he shoved back memories of his first meeting with his Second-in-Command, after Ratchet had—

When he opened them, Megatron focused only on Fowler and said, "I assume you've already checked to see if any of these humans are related to those the Autobots would consider their enemies, or even useful tools?"

Fowler nodded, his frown deepening. "Most of them don't have ties to justify them being specifically chosen as targets." The agent folded his arms. "Nakadai's uncle, Keiichi Fujiyama, is a robotics expert. But as we heard, it sounds like Nakadai's abduction was a last-minute addition, not part of the plan. It just all seems random."

"It would seem that way, if Ratchet's only concern is the experiment, and finding test subjects based on age and any other possible factors." Megatron's voice grew colder.

He then nodded to Soundwave, who quickly slipped Fowler's disk out.

"We have our copy," Megatron said, turning back to Fowler, his voice clipped. "You have our assistance in finding your lost and figuring out Ratchet's plans."

Fowler nodded. Brow furrowed, he then asked, "Think Ratchet will continue the age pattern?"

"Go lower? Possibly."

Fowler's smile was mirthless. "You don't hold back ever, do you?"

"It's all the more reason to figure out what he's doing, Agent Fowler." Megatron then stared at Fowler very intently, and not for the first time, the agent felt the urge to fidget in the Decepticon leader's presence. "There's one more thing..."

###

"Those fraggers—that damned skin-job—"

"Bulk, shut up. Cliff's not answering."

"So?"

Arcee shot him a filthy look that was even more unflattering with the wounds the 'Con medic had left her with, and Bulkhead immediately backed down, though not without one more colorful string of whispered curses.

The two transformed back to vehicle mode and summoned their drones for a retreat from the area's human population.

On the road, Arcee activated her comm. "Ratchet, groundbridge, now."

Perhaps it was something in her voice that made Ratchet pause and ask, "Is this about Cliffjumper?"

Arcee felt some of the tension uncoil in her chest. "Yeah, is that dumb-aft in med—?"

"His spark signature was lost."

The tension was back and threatening to crack her chassis.

"Where? He—"

Her tires began to squeak on the road as she sped up too fast, too soon.

"Scrap, just—groundbridge us back, then to Cliff's last location, and—"

Ratchet grunted. "It'll just be to retrieve his body for spare parts, are you up for that—?"

"_**Now**_, doctor."

"Very well."

And then the Autobots were gone, leaving the human street quiet and empty.

**A/N: Fujiyama is actually a character from the original G1 Transformers series. But only his last name was given, so I used the first name of one of his voice actors.**

**A Transformers wiki said a deca-cycle=three weeks. Does anyone know a good source of Transformers lingo/slang for time and other things?**

**I wasn't sure about outright saying Cybertronians have an adrenaline rush too, so I went with 'chemical rush' as its equivalent. **

**Chance O'Neal: I forgot to mention that this version of Mirrorverse!TFP!Megatron is/was not a mathematician. I think I've finally figured out a way to fit Sawyer in this, since I've really wanted to get him in for a while, but it might take him a while to show up. And I was planning to bring in other LOST characters too, like giving them a mix of very minor or secondary roles. And though it's Mirrorverse, I hadn't exactly planned on flipping/changing everyone and everything. Part of that is that I'd like to sorta play around with, say, Fowler interacting with more tolerant 'Cons instead of the 'Bots. Like how some things change, how some don't, etc. Though admittedly there wasn't much visible Fowler in this chapter, I thought things would be too urgent and business-like for that, though hopefully there was little bit of characterization on his side sprinkled in. Indeed, "Good is Not Nice" per se in this, it's sorta getting 'Gray and Grayer' in my brainstorming. **

**Piper Halliwell: Well, Starscream and Kate have started interacting a bit more, and that'll continue next chapter.**

**Jacob shives: Thanks, glad you think the writing's done well. **

**KFBG: Thanks, hope you like the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Title: and the glass zone shatters**

**Chapter: Four**

**Summary: On this side of the mirror, the Decepticons have a higher tolerance for humans. The Autobots, on the other hand, don't really give much thought to the skin-jobs beneath their feet... [Shattered Glass/Mirrorverse Transformers Prime AU]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers Prime.**

**A/N: Please remember to leave feedback. Thank you editoress and nellasaur and wherearemychips at tumblr for their feedback on this. I'll try to answer reviewers individually through pm. Thank you Jacob shives, Chance O'Neal and Piper Halliwell; and quicksilver2402004 and Naphtali Phoenix.**

**This also should be in continuity with my other mirrorverse!TFP fic written for the TF-Prime Livejournal community's August challenge, "it's science," unless noted otherwise.**

**ETA: After some consideration, revised this chapter to drop hints of certain character(s). They may show up later. Also edited for grammar/hyphens messed up by word program.**

**ETA2: Revised Starscream's mini flashback to better gel with the plot.**

Ch. 4

Starscream almost forgot about his human passenger. Going at unnecessarily high speeds, taking tight turns, twisting about and spiraling around, familiar winds rushing past—his frustration burned away, he was fragging enjoying himself now...

But then he heard the human make some sort of noise, and he immediately slowed down.

Humans were fragile, weren't they? They could fly too, of course, or he wouldn't have his alt mode—but he couldn't assume they were all trained as pilots.

Uncertain, the Seeker began, "My apologies, I did not mean to—"

It was then he realized Kate was laughing.

At a loss, Starscream was struck silent (something he knew the whole Nemesis crew would be struck by themselves, Knock Out being the most vocally teasing about it).

The human did an odd mix of a giggle, snort and snicker as she tried to reign herself in.

"Sorry, I just…never got a ride like that before."

Some of the knobs inside his cockpit and his wings twitched slightly. "Oh no, it is nothing, I only thought at first that you were…discomforted."

Kate shook her head, still looking flushed. The dots on her face looked even darker against the red tint to her skin...

"Do you have a…'tattoo' as well—that is what you called our mark, yes?"

The human blinked. "No, I, uh, thought about it once in high school, but never did—"

"Then what are the dots on your face?" Starscream's voice grew more thoughtful. "If they are not tattoos, are they natural? But they're not on all humans…natural variations, then?"

Kate blinked again, more slowly. "Uh, yeah, they're natural, and not everyone has them—they're freckles."

"Freckles..."

Kate flushed, self conscious as a giant alien robot sounded so fascinated over something that was utterly mundane to her.

###

Arcee's feet cracked along the broken ground as she scanned its surface, searching for Cliffjumper. Ratchet had already played back a recording of Cliff's life signal going offline back at the base.

"Untapped Energon deposit," said the scientist clinically, distant to Arcee's audio receptors, as was Bulkhead's response over its now useless state.

She only had optics for a sharply pointed, curving rock...

Arcee bent down, picked it up. She heard Bumblee's low beep, questioning.

"Yeah, it's Cliff's," she answered, her voice empty.

"Given the relatively short time frame since Cliffjumper offlined, and the fact that the Energon explosion here still seems fairly recent, the Nemesis may not be too far away..."

Arcee straightened at that, fingers curling around Cliff's horn.

"What are you thinking?" She asked him without preamble, shooting the older 'Bot a look over her shoulder.

"That now is the perfect opportunity to reclaim my test subject."

"What, are you switching gears? Finally giving up now that the last one's—?"

Ratchet shook his head at Bulkhead's question.

"On the contrary—Starscream may have the answer," the scientist said, smirking slightly.

###

Fowler pinched the bridge of his nose.

"So you—?"

"Not my fault Little Miss 'Con tried to hijack me," grumbled Knock Out, arms crossed.

Megatron had summoned the medic and his partner back to the bridge to share their story with Fowler, who was taking it about as well as could be expected.

Text scrolled across Soundwave's facial screen as he turned away from a computer panel. 'I've pulled up her file for you.'

Kate's photo was rather grim, her face dead eyed above the numbered sign hanging around her neck.

All the Decepticons' attention flickered back to Fowler when he swore.

"Her father?"

If Soundwave was mystified, he of course showed nothing. Instead he just went to the note about Kate's family, and there it read, 'Sam Austen.'

"Could you pull up a news article that mentions her old man?"

Soundwave continued to follow the liaison's strange requests, until an article mentioned _Sergeant Major_ Sam Austen.

"The f—?"

Knock Out cut off his partner, his voice half-skeptical, half willing to believe. "Her father doesn't—?"

"Sergeant Major Austen's in the loop."

"Freaky," Knock Out muttered, Breakdown rolling his optics.

Megatron's optics narrowed. The woman had been too surprised by their presence, it was unlikely her father told her about them...and given that she was a convict and he was essentially the law, there was probably at the very least deep communication issues between the two...

Megatron turned to Soundwave. "Call Starscream—"

"He went out for a flight with Kate," Breakdown said.

"—of course he did," Megatron grumbled. He hadn't expressly ordered Starscream confined to base; though even if he had, his Second probably still would've flown out. At least the Seeker would probably have cooled down by now.

"Seriously?" Megatron's attention snapped at Breakdown's voice, flickering to he and Knock Out crowding around the computer screen. Fowler was off to their side, making a call back to his own base of operations.

"You're not the least bit curious?" Knock Out purred as he brought up Kate's record again.

"It's not strictly relevant to invade her privacy—"

"Equivalent exchange—she's learned a little of our history, we'll learn a little of hers. No harm, no foul—"

Breakdown shot his partner a very deadpan stare.

"—that human pun was not intended," muttered Knock Out.

Breakdown still playfully whacked the medic upside the head. But both 'Cons' attention went to the screen, to a certain lines on Kate's file.

"...I thought guns were the choice method for homicide here? Granted, not much different from Cybertron..."

"_Knock Out_," Breakdown groaned, but the medic waved him off with one hand, the other pointing out another line on the file.

"Oh no, wait, she was in some insurance scam, filed something under her procreator's name..."

Breakdown's optics scanned the screen. "'Stepfather'—the frag is that again? Another progenitor—?"

Soundwave gave a low beep, and Megatron's attention flickered back to the scrolling text on his communication officer's facial screen. His optics narrowed.

"What do you mean you can't reach him?" Megatron's voice cut through the bridge, even though his tone was deadly quiet. Knock Out and Breakdown snapped their attention to their leader, while Fowler shut his phone and stared at the eldest Decepticon.

Text quickly flashed again across Soundwave's facial screen, 'It seems like another of the Autobots' jamming stations.'

In the seconds after, the only audible thing was Breakdown's low swearing.

###

"If you are taken into custody...will you be executed?"

Starscream's voice was halting, hesitant as he asked Kate. For her part, she was trying to pretend that he was just talking to her over some radio from far away, and that she wasn't at this moment literally inside him and his face was, what, freakin' hidden in another facet of himself? It had been disturbing to watch him transform, his body splitting and bending in ways that should have hurt, right? She hadn't worked up the nerve to ask, especially since he seemed perfectly fine. The appeal of flight was taking a backseat as the full insanity of her situation took hold again.

"The death penalty? I—no," and Kate took a breath. It didn't help that she was taken off guard by the giant alien robot apparently knowing a few things about human law in America. "No, I'm not up for that. But I really don't do well with confinement either."

"Who does?" Starscream growled, and there was some low undercurrent in his voice that made Kate pause.

"You ever do time, um, Starscream?" Her fingers started to fiddle with each other. "Do they do that on Cybertron—?"

"There were prison sentences for criminals, but the system was different—for one, we did not have an equivalent to a 'jury of your peers' as done in your country, though Soundwave says—"

"So he does talk?"

Some mirth entered Starscream's voice when he replied, "He finds his text and playback features adequate for most communication."

Kate nodded, though she wasn't quite sure she understood why the faceless (or masked?) Decepticon refused to ever talk if he could. "What did he have to 'say' about juries?"

"That he found they weren't always comprised of the—is it the 'defender's'—the person who is on trial—?"

"That's the defendant—"

"The 'defendant,' thank you—he found they weren't always comprised of a defendant's peers. Soundwave found it odd, but Knock Out just said it was nice to know human systems of law could be just as flawed as Cybertron's."

At this point Starscream realized he was rambling again, something that would not have surprised Knock Out, Soundwave or the rest of the Nemesis crew. (What had Thundercracker said? "You'll go on talking even when dismantled for parts, even after passing into the fraggin' AllSpark's realm, you dumb-aft." And then Skywarp had said that was a bit cruel, though he didn't deny its accuracy.)

Kate at least suppressed her laugh to only a smile. It faded as she tentatively asked, "Did you wish you had a jury when you were sentenced?"

This time Kate noticed the cockpit knobs twitch violently.

"I did not mean—my 'time,' there—there was no sentence, for it wasn't exactly...legal. It wasn't—"

Kate couldn't take her eyes off the twitching knobs. It was simply eerie to see them move by themselves, not to mention with...feeling, as if she saw restless hands instead.

"—it was just confinement. Something I did not do well with either."

Kate knew she should let it drop, it wasn't as if she was planning to spill her guts about the crime that set her on the run, but she still started to say, "You were—you were kid—?"

Kate lurched in her seat, and she definitely knew she was going to pay for her failure to listen to her better judgment—until she realized that Starscream was moving toward a great stack of growing black smoke, not losing his temper.

"What's that? A fire?"

"No, clearly a blizzard," Starscream snarled, and Kate rolled her eyes. Of course now she wasn't about to admit to him that was a pretty dumb question.

Starscream still followed the smoke, his silence deep and tense enough to infect Kate's own mind with a growing apprehension.

"Scrap," Starscream hissed, and Kate's hands clenched around her seatbelt as they finally saw the smoke churn out of a raging fire.

But there'd been something in Starscream's voice—Kate immediately asked, "You know the place?"

"It's a military school."

Kate's mouth went very dry. She thought of her father.

"Do they know—?"

"Fowler and his superiors have never shown interest in informing new military recruits of our presence—_frag_!"

"What?" Kate snapped, alarmed, Starscream's anxiety that infectious. Being inside his cockpit probably didn't help.

"I can't reach your people's emergency personnel."

"..._What_?"

Starscream growled. "The Autobots must have built another thrice-damned jamming station..."

Kate heard a series of high beeps in the cockpit, then Starscream hissed, "Primus, they're crowding around the door—"

"Wh—?"

"Our forces have been equipped with sensors to identify human life signatures...I'm only getting signals from one of the buildings..."

Kate's stomach clenched as she comprehended that out of the whole school complex, Starscream was reading only so little life left.

"...their door's blocked—"

Starscream finally pulled enough into view that Kate could see what he meant—building debris blocking an entrance. And the windows.

"—_everything_'s blocked..."

Kate's stomach clenched tighter at the rising tension in Starscream's voice. The woman tried very hard not to imagine the survivors left trapped inside an inferno, just waiting to die, or still clawing madly to get out, to escape, to run...

Starscream descended suddenly. "Kate, curl into a ball—cover your head, press it against your knees—don't move—"

To Kate's amazement, Starscream navigated the flames and the smoke, to somehow land on the dying building with enough ease that the whole thing didn't collapse under his weight.

"—I'm going to transform."

_This _was more disturbing than watching Starscream shift and collapse in on himself. She couldn't help it, Kate closed her eyes as she obeyed the Decepticon's instructions. It was probably for the best. But it felt like she was suddenly thrown into a bizarre and terrifying mix of a roving fair's dark romantic tunnel of love and their rickety low coaster ride. Kate found she could finally breathe again when everything grew still again. She could scarcely believe the building still hadn't collapsed.

"You're in my hand, all right?"

Kate tried to say, "sure, okay," but it came out more as a strangled, high and totally indecipherable "mmfkmm."

"I'm getting them out now..."

Kate lifted her head, opened her eyes—and squinted in the dark of Starscream's closed, protective fist. She finally found her voice. "What about witnesses?"

"I'm just going to let them out, they won't see a thing. It won't take long."

Kate nodded, though given their positions Starscream probably saw nothing, rendering the whole gesture moot.

###

The whole situation made Starscream's finish crawl. The military school on fire (and so many already dead), the inability to patch in a 911 call, the possibility of a jamming station and—everything, really, would add up into something unsettling if Starscream wasn't trying to suppress thinking for once. If it was a trap, it was an ironclad trap he could not escape willingly. With no other help to be reached, Starscream couldn't leave those humans alone to die besieged—

_"Hello?" Starscream shrieked at the empty ruins of the Crystal Sector. The immediate sight of bodies everywhere and his sensors failing to find any spark signals had reduced him to calling for anybody, anyone alive out there, in his home..._

—couldn't let those humans die besieged by fire on all sides, not when he was there and available to do _something_.

He just had to be quick, that was all, he was a thrice-damned Seeker; he could be quick.

Kate in hand, Starscream crouched down on the building, his free claw reaching down to pull the debris away. That was done with relative ease and speed, and Starscream simply ripped at the top of the door, then let it drop. Immediately humans began pouring out—

And then the trap was sprung very fast.

A surge of electricity shot the center of his back. The Seeker shouted, jerking, writhing, his claw dropping Kate (who gave her own scream) over the rushing throng of humans below. Half a second later another surge of electricity ripped through Starscream's whole body (including the hand that had just dropped the human) and plunged him into unconsciousness.

He lurched dangerously forward, but Bumblebee pulled him up before he could fall on the humans. The Seeker slung over his shoulder, the yellow scout beeped questioningly at Arcee.

"Maggots didn't see anything, waste of time to eliminate all of them." Arcee commed Ratchet. "Got him."

She jumped off the building, shaking under the pressure. Bumblebee followed, the building giving another ominous crack.

The groundbridge opened in front of them, and they vanished, the building finally collapsing behind them.

###

Kate's terrified and startled scream turned into a pained shout as she fell onto someone, hard. Back on the ground and suddenly with pounding feet all around her, Kate stilled and folded herself up. When that wasn't much use, she backpedaled and struggled to pull herself up. When she was finally standing, someone grabbed her, started to drag her forward with the rest of the crowd.

Kate almost went along willingly with the man at his hard run, she was good at running—but one glance over her shoulder and she found two people helping another bloodied one out, and immediately she was reminded of Starscream.

Kate began to pull back. "Let go—"

"Are you insane, we have to—"

Kate remembered her gun. She pulled it out and immediately aimed it at her would-be hero. "I said 'let go.'"

The young man finally got a good look at her and her weapon, neither one authorized for someplace like this. He wisely released her and continued his run, even faster now. Others had seen her gun now and were giving all the space she could possibly want, some swearing.

She ran for the building—well, its general area, giving it a wide berth as she searched. How could she lose sight of a giant alien robot? Kate supposed all the black smoke would hide him pretty well. Had he flown away? But he'd left her, a witness of his and his people's existence. He had no incentive to leave her, unless he'd meant to leave her to die. Yet that seemed a stretch. Even with Kate's trust issues, Starscream's actions did not add up to him abandoning her to die, and rather randomly at that.

Then what the hell was going on?

Kate jumped at debris falling behind her. She cursed, swiped the hair out of her eyes, turned around—

There was Starscream slung over a large yellow robot's shoulder, and with them was one of the Autobots that had tried to kill her, the blue, feminine-looking one.

Kate had raised her gun instinctively and took aim, but she still had trouble comprehending what the hell she was seeing, even though one of the robots was rapidly becoming an acquaintance and the other one had freakin' tried to shoot her dead. It was just...really too much. She was in the middle of goddamn nowhere, and what, trying to protect a giant alien robot from other giant alien robots (which had a member that had tried to kill her, that couldn't be stressed enough) with this gun that suddenly felt like a toy to her? Granted, it had actually shot through the large green Autobot's eye, but even with her experience that was just a lucky shot, and there was no reason to expect getting a repeat performance.

Either way, it all became a moot point when that same flashing light exploded forth in a round portal, and again it took the robots away.

Kate lowered her gun, gaping...

Then the building finally collapsed.

The ground shook, the dust exploded forward, choking—

Coughing, hunching over, Kate straightened up and tore off her jacket, covering her mouth with it to block out the mingling dust and smoke. All the while, the gun stayed in her other hand, providing some cold comfort.

Kate managed to stumble away into freer air, and fortunately in a direction empty of fleeing military personnel.

She kept going, and going—

_"If you are taken into custody...will you be executed?"_

—and going, she was home free now—

_"The 'defendant,' thank you—"_

—yes, home free, Marshall Edward Mars, the cops, no one would have any clue where she was for a while—

"—_it was just confinement. Something I did not do well with either."_

—she didn't owe him or any of them anything, it was not her problem, not at all. Knock Out and the rest of the Decepticons would surely figure out that their Second-in-Command was missing, they didn't need her to tell them that. But Starscream had mentioned a 'jamming station,' something blocking all communication, what if that delayed their mounting a rescue by crucial minutes, hours? But there was no way she could reach them, no way at all...not unless—if they had contacts even there—but no, absolutely not, she couldn't go there, not after all the time she's spent on the run—

_"I'm just going to let them out, they won't see a thing. It won't take long."_

Kate swore.

She tied her jacket around her waist, tightening it unnecessarily hard.

Kate turned around. She could still see the ruined building. The young woman walked back toward it.

There was only one thing Kate could think of doing that could possibly (not even definitively!) let the other Decepticons know their Second-in-Command had gone missing, to pass along information that was perhaps (only 'perhaps!') vital to them.

Time went wonky—it didn't seem to take Kate long at all to wind up in the back of a cop car on its way to the closest precinct. And joy of joys, she was already suspected of blowing the military school to hell, given her history and some half-assed theorizing over a grudge gone crazy against her military father.

The Decepticons would owe her after this. Or maybe they'd be even, whatever.

###

"Anything, Silas?"

His scarred eye narrowed at the name 'Austen' a second longer, before he turned around and explained his men's findings to Arcee.

Afterward, the 'Bot only nodded, muttering under her breath, "Bulk will be pleased…."

###

It was something Starscream had never shared with anyone, something he was only half-conscious of. The fact that in the border between consciousness and the lack thereof, he would instinctively rise with a very specific intent to test for any restraints, something that took a second or less. Something he'd only comprehended later, and tried to ignore.

Now it was impossible to ignore—he was waking, and there was something keeping his wrists down. And his arms, his legs, his feet, his neck, his wings…there was a mechanical gag around his mouth….

Starscream's optics snapped open after a split second telling himself, _calm down it can't be all bad it can't—_

"You really do have the worst timing, Seeker," Ratchet said, his optics on him as he put his data pad down.

—_it can, it is, not again—_

Ratchet slipped out a small holster, clicked a button, and the surgical Energon blade crackled alive.

_**Not again**_.

Starscream whimpered.

**A/N: If it wasn't clear before, I'm not revealing everything at once, but building up to larger explanations/etc. And this chapter's flashback and the previous one aren't in chronological order per se—the above one happened BEFORE the one with Jetfire in the last chapter. Starscream and Ratchet's history also predates Jetfire's death in this fic.**

**More disclaimers: I don't own Transformers Prime or LOST or anything related to them.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Title: and the glass zone shatters**

**Chapter: Five**

**Summary: On this side of the mirror, the Decepticons have a higher tolerance for humans. The Autobots, on the other hand, don't really give much thought to the skin-jobs beneath their feet... [Shattered Glass/Mirrorverse Transformers Prime AU]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers Prime.**

**A/N: Please remember to leave feedback. Thank you editoress, nellasaur, wherearemychips and sweetsweetsorrow at tumblr for their feedback on this. I'll try to answer reviewers individually through pm. Thank you to all the reviewers. Hope everyone enjoys the next chapter.**

**This also should be in continuity with my other mirrorverse!TFP fic written for the TF-Prime Livejournal community's August challenge, "it's science," unless noted otherwise.**

Ch.5

The search team had been sent out immediately, but they were scouring the land pretty much blindly. The Autobots' jamming stations—especially new ones undiscovered or nonexistent before—could be tricky enough that Soundwave was not able to immediately figure out their borders to get an idea of Starscream's (and Kate's) last location.

Still Megatron had decided to leave Soundwave to his relentless work on trying to unscramble the jamming codes back at the Nemesis. The communications officer had also put all his surveillance drones on high alert while they searched outside with the rest: Megatron, Breakdown, Knock Out, and a team of Eradicons (the rest of the troopers back at the ship or staying in position at the mines).

Fowler's forces too were searching, and checking for any disturbances in the area.

Their list of suspect locations had been gone through—and quickly exhausted. All said locations had been abandoned in past battles. At this point they had yet to fill in the blanks to find the 'Bots and M.E.C.H.'s other hidden bases, something that was haunting them now with Starscream and his human charge missing.

The 'Cons and their allies operated under the assumption that both were missing and in Autobot hands. It hadn't occurred to them that there would be anything wrong with that line of thinking.

###

"What's all the ruckus about?"

At the bright southern voice, a bitter smile crossed Kate's lips as she massaged her forehead, eyes closed. G_reat,__my__audience__widens_.

"Ah, Ford, come on over here, Scully here—"

"Mulder."

"Mulder was the guy."

"Yeah, but Mulder was the one that believed in aliens."

"And this is why I'm the one with the nicknames, gents," the southerner said as he came into view. Kate glanced at the newcomer—dusty blonde hair, dimpled, smirking, badge—and away again. That was about all the detail she wanted.

"But no, Ford, she—"

"_I_ never mentioned 'aliens,' that was something _you_ jumped to," Kate snarled, shooting the officers a glare. "I don't know what they were, my first thought was government project—"

Even as time slipped by and Kate felt more and more like she was wasting her time and had turned herself in for nothing, she was still reluctant to spill everything and drop the 'alien' bomb. She didn't want to be seen like someone completely off her rocker, she wanted some shred of believability, and for some reason she thought replacing the extraterrestrial thing with government science gone wrong would be enough.

Given the cops' reactions had included adding aliens to her story, she needn't have bothered. They'd figured it out despite themselves, even though it was useless as long as it was a joke to them, and she still had no credibility at all.

At least if there was a secret government contact here, surely her edited version would be enough to grab his attention. That was rapidly becoming a big 'if' as no indication of any undercover agent materialized. So much for her theory that at least all the major precincts had to have an operative to deal with covering up any issues with the aliment robots.

"—what with their liaison showing up, Agent Fragger or Fowler or something, I don't know—"

"Now slow down there, Freckles—"

Kate's eyes narrowed particularly venomously at the diminutive, comparing it to the last time she heard it in way more wondering and even innocent tones. (Maybe Starscream was dead already, his own blue blood on their alien ship, the Autobots had to have their own spaceship too, right?)

"—who's 'they?'"

"Oh, you're gonna love this, Ford."

Kate didn't bother to glance at another sneering cop or to take a breath as she bit out, "Escaped custody, tried to hijack a car—turns out it wasn't a car. It—_he_ was a robot that could talk and think, with a body pretty much like a human's, with arms, legs, eyes, mouth—the whole nine yards. I get caught in the crossfire between him and some other robot transformers, then his friend comes and they take me back to their base—"

"Regular superheroes, aren't they?"

Kate glared at Ford—but there, something in his tone, in the quirk of his smile...

"—I'm in their custody now as they wait for that government liaison I've mentioned for the umpteenth time—"

"So whether home-grown or off-planet, definitely government involvement there, huh?" Ford was smiling, but Kate saw it—the smile didn't reach his eyes. She began to suspect.

"—and another robot, the Second-in-Command for their military unit—"

"Machines finally risen up against humanity, Freckles?" The other cops that had been laughing at her continued roaring their amusement, but still Kate observed that though Ford's smile widened at their reaction, his eyes remained calm and even thoughtful now. She had his full attention.

"—he's in charge of keeping an eye on me—"

"Isn't that a bit beneath him, Mr. VP-Big-Shot of the Transformers?"

Was that familiarity Kate sensed in his tone? Ford was definitely trying to tell her something in between the lines and the growing laughter of his coworkers. Give her a clue; hell, even reassurance.

"I dunno, seemed like he ticked off his Commander-in-Chief. And he was angry too, needed some air, but had to bring me along. Guy turned into a jet, and took me for a ride."

"Didn't ask for your frequent flyer miles?" Ford was definitely playing for an audience, and Kate had to admire his commitment to keeping this under the radar.

"No time—soon enough he saw smoke, went to investigate. Found the military school on fire, tried to call 911—"

"Robots with speed dial?"

"—but said he couldn't reach anyone, thought someone was jamming the signal, like those other robots his group fought. Anyway, he lands and transforms, holding me in one hand, and lets the survivors out, clears the debris, pries open the door-hell, ask your forensics, they'll tell you—"

"'Fraid Grissom's retired, Sarah." Being on the run rather made some pop culture references that Ford was surely making rather useless on Kate.

"He was there. Gotta be some claw marks on that door." Kate wasn't actually sure about that, given that Starscream had tried to help the humans while keeping out of sight, he probably would've tried to pry open the door without leaving any super obvious impressions of himself behind. But Kate found she was getting pulled into verbal jabbing with Ford-something she had no time for. She had to step back, focus. Finish her edited version of events.

"Anyway, after he lets the survivors out, there's a—I don't know, I couldn't see everything, but I heard—he must've been hit by something, because he shouted, and suddenly dropped me—I fell on the survivors—"

"About the only true thing that happened, according to one of the witnesses," snapped one of the other cops, some of the mirth dying away given the very real number of casualties.

"—I go looking for the Second-in-Command. Find him in the hands of his enemies, one of them the guys that even tried to kill me, the blue one—anyway, they-god, they...teleport out of there—"

"Like in Star Trek?" Ford asked, playing the deadpan snarker to the hilt.

Kate pursed her lips. "Yeah, like in Star Trek. After that, almost ran off again, maybe try my luck in Australia...but. Well, I owed the guy and his group." The woman figured she had to show some more emotional honesty on that front for her whole thing to fly. "Turned myself in, figuring there'd be someone here that could reach the government higher-ups and those robots, let them know their Second-in-Command's been kidnapped."

"Tall tales aren't usually your style, Kate." And she stiffened at that damn familiar voice, even as that equally familiar hand clamped tight over her shoulder, making her shudder with disgust. "Drunk like your step daddy?"

"Wayne went for his fists more often than he talked about robots, Mars," Kate snapped at the marshal without looking at him, her voice stiffening and becoming more robotic than any of the actual robots she'd spoken to recently.

"I'll take it from here, Detective," Edward Mars said, beefy hand still on Kate's shoulder.

Ford glanced at that hand, then back up into the face of the pepper-gray haired marshal. "Gonna have to take it up with the fella that booked her—"

"Which would be me—" said the cop that had tried to call Kate 'Scully.'

"Which would be good ol' Jeff here—now if you excuse me—"

And with that, Ford left, Kate's eyes on his back until he was out of sight.

###

Ford's hand froze for half a second over the classified contact number once its screen shifted and the whole thing vibrated in hand, before accepting the call.

"Commander Fowler, you got a 'Con missing?"

His superior's voice crackled on his end. "So you've heard something?"

"Yeah, from this girl in custody..."

###

Starscream's optics flickered on again even as they rolled back down, away from the top of his skull. They refocused, found a blurry red-and-white shape. It re-solidified back into Ratchet—mostly. He was doing something else with his hands, but what else, what now—Starscream's optics suddenly squeezed shut again as his chest, his spark, his everything ached, in both new and familiar ways. Yes, fraggin' awareness was definitely back. How long had he blacked out? Starscream tried to remember: at some point Ratchet's Energon blade had dug in too deep and—

Starscream tried not to groan around his mechanical gag. Maybe trying to remember wasn't the best strategy at the moment.

But he must've still made a sound, for Ratchet turned around (Starscream knew that he could never really keep his mouth shut, hated that, Thundercracker had hated that, had hated _him_, must've hated him in the end—).

"Up faster than I anticipated...don't know _why_ I'm surprised by that anymore," Ratchet murmured, but Starscream could hear him perfectly through the fog of pain. Yes, it was a fog...it was all a mass of something that blended in with each other, obscuring something...there was something particularly new in the ache of his spark, it was different from what Ratchet had done to it years ago back in the Omicron Labs...

The Seeker's optics focused, focused...he could almost make out what was in Ratchet's hand, it was resting on something on the medical supplies' desk...there, it was glowing, shining...

Ratchet's hand lied on a clear box that seemed to have flexible pressure supports. Inside was a spark surrounded by shards of Energon. An abnormally small spark though, half the size of a normal one...half...

Starscream tried to stop hyperventilating from sheer panic. It wasn't working.

Ratchet noticed the way Starscream's optics focused on his hand over the spark box. "At least I accurately anticipated that your singularly unique and indestructible spark would survive being split in half."

And Ratchet's hand pressed down on the box.

Starscream saw the small half-spark inside it compress a little before _**blinding**____**searing**____**hot**____**cold**____**sundering**____**breaking**____**eviscerating**____**agony**____**rip**____**claw**____**tear**____**through**____**his**____**entire**____**being**____**dying**____**dying**____**dying**____**he**____**wanted**____**to**____**die**____**why**____**couldn't**____**he**____**die**____**ratchet**____**optimus**____**elita**____**autobot didn't**____**want**____**him**____**to**____**die**____**that**____**was**____**the**____**point**____**of**____**the**____**experiment**____**ratchet**____**ratchet**____**ratchet**____**please**____**stop**____**oh**____**primus**____**stop**____**it**____**please**____**begging**____**you**____**begging**____**you**____**just**____**stop**____**it**____**end**____**it**____**end**____**end**____**end**____**end**____**want**____**to**____**see**____**trine**____**jetfire**____**procreator**____**again**____**trine**____**my**____**trine**____**trinemates**____**trine**____**trine**____**trine begging**____**you**____**stop**____**it**____**RATCHET**____**PLEASE**____**I**____**BEG**____**OF**____**YOU**_

"Too hard, I see—"

Starscream sagged back down, optics still squeezed tight as his spark, the one in his chest, the remnant, what was left of it—oh primus, what had Ratchet done this time—?

"—but surely the touch was light enough..."

Scrap, had the mad 'Bot only pushed down on _**the**____**other**____**half**____**of**____**his**____**spark**____**outside**____**of**____**his**____**body,**____**in**____**a**____**box**_, only a little?

The half-spark still in his chest stretched out to what little shape it had left, it could breathe again—but that seemed to only make the pain throb harder, if slower.

Starscream whimpered. But he heard Ratchet begin to move—the Seeker's optics snapped open, only to find the scientist had moved away toward...toward...

Starscream jerked forward, crying out around his gag. _Warp_! _Thunder_!

That was them, there, on that other operating table! That was his trine, his brothers, his trinemates, they were alive, alive, they were not—not dea—not...no...no...it was one figure, not two...it was pure black...and it had no wings.

_Losing__my__mind. __Not__again. __Don't__want__to__see__—__not__again_..._not__now..._

Starscream shook his head-either way, Ratchet was near another figure, another test subject. Only the figure's head stuck out slightly from the table, which was slanted, and even provided a headrest for the neck.

The Seeker struggled to get up, cried out again, though this time he had no idea what he was saying exactly. A question, another plea to the Autobot scientist?

Starscream struggled harder and cried out more fervently and with even less coherency as Ratchet reached for the other Cybertronian's spark chamber...

He stilled, shocked and horrified when Ratchet opened it and there was nothing inside. _Dead,__the__other's__already__dea_—

Starscream watched Ratchet take his half-spark in the pressure box, remove it, and place it in the other's spark chamber. It was then Starscream began to wonder if the other Cybertronian had ever been alive.

Both 'Con and 'Bot waited. There was a spark in the chamber—a half one, but a spark nonetheless. Trying to analyze the situation helped Starscream block out the pain somewhat: he knew that theoretically, the Cybertronian should activate, even if the spark wasn't originally his. There had been rare recorded cases of sparks switching bodies, though it had also been recorded that they had been returned to their original frames. But...those had between two separate sparks. And the legitimacy of those records were still debated, questions on whether it did happen had persisted. Not to mention this was two halves of the same spark, so perhaps the Cybertronian would not...

It did not activate.

Ratchet seemed to do some cursory checks on a computer panel, but the black Cybertronian body remained an inert shell.

Starscream watched the scientist thoughtfully rub his chin.

"Perhaps the consciousness has dissipated by now..." He clicked another button. "Yes, it's gone now...so there's apparently a time limit to connect it to a half-spark...I'll need another to confirm my hypothesis...Arcee?"

Starscream's eyes narrowed as the scientist commed the two-wheeler.

"I'll need another human..."

Starscream's audio receptors strained to hear, dread settling into the lingering burn all over his spark remnant. Another human? So they didn't have Kate. She was safe. Or maybe they'd had her and instantly killed her, and now they needed another... Starscream shuddered. Best to go with the hypothesis that was less liable to make him feel even more like scrap. They needed another human, thus Kate wasn't here, thus she was alive. One less weight off his shoulders.

Only to be replaced by a new one. The 'Bots were going to grab some random human for another of Ratchet's tests. But what _was_ Ratchet testing? Half-sparks, consciousness, his clear attempt to activate a new Cybertronian—did Ratchet speak of the connection between the spark and the mental processor that would create sentience, life? But if he was, what the Pit did a human have to do with any of that?

"...all right, that'll work...and we can test-yes, it's ready...all right, I'll join you shortly."

Before Starscream could brood on what else Ratchet could be testing, he saw the Autobot start to make his way back to him with a familiar syringe. The one Ratchet had specifically made that would put him straight to sleep despite the mutation in his spark and the experiments done to it. Futilely Starscream arched back, growling like a cornered cyberfox, but all too efficiently Ratchet plunged the syringe in the metal gag, its chemical surge passing through it and straight into the Seeker's mouth. Starscream still fought, trying to close up his throat as much as possible, gagging and choking. But as it had been back in the Omicron Labs, it went down, and Starscream knew nothing more.

###

"Anything on recent disturbances in the area—?"

Fowler's voice crackled back over Megatron's comm. "Just got something from one of our agents at the Jasper precinct. They've got Austen. Found her at a military school that was totaled—sending those coordinates now... They're waiting with her outside right now for a groundbridge—I'm sending those coordinates your way too—"

"Have you received all that, Soundwave?" Megatron asked. Currently the 'Con officers and Fowler were all linked on the same comm network.

One of Megatron's cockpit screens read out Soundwave's affirmative text, a text that went out to everyone else.

Soundwave's next message was less comforting: 'Something over Jasper blocking groundbridge signal.'

"Frag this, Jasper's just a couple of miles away from my location, I'm getting her myself," Knock Out snapped, and the tires screeching on the dirt were even audible over the comm network.

"I'll meet you there," Breakdown said, and his wheels made an audible turn over the comm too.

"I'll be in and out before you're halfway there," was Knock Out's confident, breezy reply, but still the tension remained in the air.

"Ford will get Austen to Jasper's border—"

"Wait, whatever's jamming the groundbridge signal is letting communications in?" Breakdown cut Fowler off with his pointed observation.

"...You're right, that is weird," Knock Out's bewildered voice crackled over the comm. "Unless it's not affecting human transmissions…and that's a real stretch. But then a groundbridge signal's never been jammed before...it's definitely new tech."

"Perhaps their codes for jamming our communications and now our groundbridge would cancel each other out if they tried to use them in tandem," Megatron mused aloud, also angling toward Jasper.

###

"Why do they call it a groundbridge?"

"Hell if I know, Freck—"

One of the walls of the precinct blew out.

Unthinkingly, Kate ran, far away from shouts from Agent Ford, from the gunfire and more explosions and—

She ducked as another wall blew out, too close for comfort. Office supplies and other trinkets scattered around her. Her eyes lit on a pen—she snatched it up.

And slipped it into her sleeve as something pulled her up and pressed her against an intact wall, holding her cuffed wrists tight against her back.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Mars breath was hot on Kate's neck.

Better him than a deranged robot, she supposed.

###

"Knock Out," Fowler called over the commlink. "I was finally able to get in touch with Ford. The Jasper precinct's been hit. Last he saw of Kate, some marshal had grabbed her."

"Marshal's not in the loop, I take it?" Knock Out asked, voice deathly low as he passed Jasper's welcome sign. He could already see the smoke. If that wasn't the sweetest fraggin' invitation, he didn't know what was.

###

At a particular sound and light, Soundwave immediately went to examine the alert.

It was a message. The communications officer quickly ran a diagnostic over it. Prerecorded, playing on a loop. Human encoding. Soundwave judged the risk of viruses and the Nemesis being tracked minimal, and the chance of this involving Starscream and the human worth much.

The message was nothing more than a set of coordinates.

Even as Soundwave's eagerness to immediately go for those coordinates grew, his suspicion of a trap stirred.

**A/N: Now there are Beast Wars elements and connections drawn, given that in Beast Wars they have G1's Starscream as an immortal, and on the Autobot descendants' Omicron colony, they try to duplicate Starscream's immortal spark, ending up creating the practically indestructible Protoform X/Rampage.**

**Extra repetitive disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers Prime or LOST (i.e. don't own James "Sawyer" Ford or Kate Austen).**


	6. Chapter 6

**Title: and the glass zone shatters**

**Chapter: Six**

**Summary: On this side of the mirror, the Decepticons have a higher tolerance for humans. The Autobots, on the other hand, don't really give much thought to the skin-jobs beneath their feet… [Shattered Glass/Mirrorverse Transformers Prime AU]**

**Warning(s): violence, language**

**Rating: PG-13**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers Prime.**

**A/N: Please remember to leave feedback. Thank you editoress, nellasaur, wherearemychips and sweetsweetsorrow at tumblr for their feedback on this. Thank you to all the reviewers. Hope everyone enjoys the next chapter.**

**This also should be in continuity with my other mirrorverse!TFP fic written for the TF-Prime Livejournal community's August challenge, "it's science," unless noted otherwise.**

Ch. 6

"Ed, where the hell are you going to take me, the precinct's back there!"

"On _**fire**_."

Kate madly tried to open her cuffs with the pen she'd found during the chaos of all the freakin' explosions without Mars seeing.

Luckily all his attention was on the road. Still, the Marshall disgusted her even more than usual at the moment. Or just completley baffled her.

She glared at him, scowling. Letting out her anger could further distract him from her escape attempt too.

"Way to support your fellow law enforcement there!"

"Priorities, Kate."

"Right, like one criminal that blew some bastard up is worth abandoning all those cops under attack-"

The cuffs were off. Kate lunged for the wheel first. Before Mars could so much as curse her out, Kate had grabbed, twisted and slammed into something hard, red and white-_oh shit that was an ambulance. _Probably on the way for the precinct under fire.

Caught off guard by that, Kate wasn't watching the road-and soon the car was flying, rolling, tumbling, crunching.

Kate blinked, blood dripping in her eyes. Had she blacked out? The car was on its side. Kate struggled to get out, removing the seat belt, grabbing Mars' gun-she felt nothing broken in her body-

Just when she was about to leave the car and check the ambulance, she noticed how still Mars was.

Debating for a few seconds, Kate reached down and felt the man's pulse. It was there, but he still didn't look good. Glancing around, Kate holstered the gun in her back pocket, then helped Mars out. She started to drag him to the dented ambulance. It had been shoved into an alley, and now it was pressed against the wall, but it looked all right.

"Hello?" There was no answer from the ambulance.

"I'm sorry, I-are you all right? I-this guy needs some help-but are you-do you need help too?-"

Kate reached the passenger's door that hung open. In between Mars' weight and bleeding forehead, Kate was starting to feel dizzy. She climbed in, her movements stiff. She tried to drag Mars inside-Kate stopped, looking around the empty passenger's and driver's seats.

"Hello?"

Kate wiped the blood and hair out of her eyes. Then she started to look over the seats, to the back. Were the paramedics there with someone already, had they been transporting someone when she-?

"_Kate_!" Knock Out's voice rang out, and startled, the woman dropped Mars onto the pavement. Kate saw the medic's red finish flash by her alley in the rear view window, going too fast to stop suddenly once he saw her. Then she heard the sound of shots, crackling.

Kate started to shout the medic's name, but then the ambulance moved. Immediately Kate's eyes went to the ignition to yank out the keys and stop the engine, she couldn't let the ambulance roll out of control with Mars on the ground and-

There was no key in the ignition.

Before Kate could even really comprehend, the ambulance door shut suddenly, by itself.

Automatically she raised her gun to shoot out a window, but out of the corner of her eye something dark moved-too late, a seatbelt snaked around her gun arm and yanked back hard-her hand spasmed and dropped the gun-the belt kept pulling-

She screamed as it yanked her arm out of its socket.

"_Ratchet_!" Kate dimly heard Knock Out's furious shout over the haze of pain and rising laser fire. Definitely sounded like the 'Con medic was under attack.

Kate kicked, flailed, twisted around, reached for her gun, but soon the seatbelts snapped her limbs to her body and wrapped her tight, one gagging her. Then a panel slide aside and a syringe on a mechanical arm slipped out.

The syringe dived in and out. Kate slumped down, unconscious before she could scream around her gag.

###

They were in a more abandoned, quiet part of Jasper, but at the moment Knock Out could care less about keeping cover, what with Bulkhead, Arcee, the mute kid and their drones between him and the 'con skin-job with _Ratchet_-

Knock Out plowed ahead even more viciously with his Energon prod, and his anger simply boiled over when the Autobots' groundbridge activated behind them.

The 'Con transformed to vehicle mode, revved up and shot forward. The 'Bots were caught off guard by the sudden switch from attack to vehicular rush-he toppled a few drones, many so close together in an impenetrable wall that the domino effect screwed them over. Knock Out fired up his oil slick, slipping up any 'Bots that would try to follow him and-

Ratchet was in front of the groundbridge, transformed, an unconscious Kate in one hand, in his other a-

Something large and lined and crackling shot out of Ratchet's large rifle, and threw Knock Out back, wrapping him in-

Knock Out screamed long and loud as the Energon net slowly burned through every circuit, servo and wire ending.

###

Breakdown saw red as Knock Out's scream pierced the air. He turned one more block and there was his partner, in that vehicle mode he'd painstakingly searched for weeks on end when first arriving on Earth, screaming and writhing and madly sparking under the electrocuting net, Bulkhead about to shoot him-

Breakdown rammed the 'Bot out of the way, and raised his hammers to guard his partner-he had to secure their perimeter before he could even try to remove that damned net-

He heard something whirr out with a strain, a certain new height to Knock Out's pained shouts, and out of the corner of his optic Breakdown saw his partner manage to pop out his saw blade to try cutting through the net. But the saw arm madly twitched, even more so when it touched the net and the sparks just arced higher.

"Don't-!" _Scrap, he could hurt himself even more_.

"Frag, there's Megatron!" Breakdown heard Arcee shout.

_Oh thank Primus_.

"Then it's time to go," Ratchet's voice broke in, and Breakdown turned just in time to see him flee through the groundbridge with something small and dangling dark human hair out of his large hand. Bulkhead, Arcee, 'Bee and the other 'Bot drones were following.

"K-Kat-" Knock Out gritted out in between the shocks, still struggling to saw through his net, and Breakdown made a split decision. He ran after Ratchet and his team, firing shots. Angled shots from above were firing down on the fleeing 'Bots too.

Breakdown made another split decision when Arcee fired at Knock Out. Immediately his stride stopped as he leapt in his partner's path and blocked the blast with his arm-but his optics narrowed when the two-wheeler slipped through the groundbridge with the rest, and the groundbridge disconnected.

He turned back at the sound of his leader's landing and transformation. Megatron slipped out his blade and swiftly sliced through the electrocution net around Knock Out. The wire net fell away, harmless, as the medic gasped for breath.

"They took her...they have them both now..." The medic grit out, his voice stretched thin.

"Can you transform?" Breakdown asked quietly, kneeling at Knock Out's side.

"'Course," Knock Out replied, but Breakdown's concern rose at how slurred his partner's voice sounded. He only felt more apprehensive as Knock Out twitched slightly, sparked a bit more, and the parts shifting around grinded against each other with loud painful screeches.

Knock Out shot him a tired smirk. "See, s'fine-"

Breakdown caught the medic as he began to tip over.

Knock Out sighed. "On second thought, probably should've stayed that way, we have to get going..."

"What 'we?' You're not in top form right now-"

"Don't need to be in top form to find-"

Megatron cut them off; "Soundwave has a lead. Whatever blocked our signal before is gone now; we're groundbridging back to base."

Breakdown frowned as Knock Out finally laid his head down on his large blue chest. His partner's optics were half-lidded, struggling to stay open. His breathing was slow, so unlike the energetic, impuslive 'Con...

"Sounds like it's a mobile device then, something the 'Bots can move around easily-not stationary like the jamming stations," Breakdown muttered as their groundbridge lit up, and he lifted Knock Out up.

"'M'can walk, Break."

"Sure you can."

"Jerk."

"Glitch."

Megatron silently followed the medic and his assistant back to the Nemesis. The older 'Con's thoughts strayed back to his missing Second-in-Command...

###

_Ratchet had been so determined to return to this sector, Megatron's curiosity was raised. Especially as it was one of several that had been the field of a space battle a vorn ago. And as long as his crippled ship was about to die, might as well get stranded at somewhere he could investigate. Even Megatron's general mood rose when he saw that Ratchet's sector contained the ruins of some space station. It looked like a wreck, but perhaps the Decepticon leader could find enough to repair his ship, or use whatever communications system it had left to contact Soundwave._

_Megatron frowned as he approached. The station was worse off than he thought, all the entrances looked caved in, virtually locked..._

_The former gladiator landed the ship on one section of the ruined station. He scanned the vessel's Energon levels. It would not fly again unless he could refuel, never mind the damage that needed repairing._

_Megatron stepped out, began combing the surface of the station, looking for weak points to breach through. He had to get in to search for whatever supplies of use, not to mention discover why Ratchet wanted to return here...the place must've been one of the Autobots' research labs..._

_But the station's collapse on itself was choked with numerous thick layers of wall and machinery that locked in tight, some areas looked even welded shut. It made Megatron wonder if the Autobots had to quickly abandon the station, yet preserve it for their eventual return. Ratchet's own eagerness was a point in favor of that thought. And yet accidental explosions could've welded some of the areas shut too; the station had clearly suffered severe damage._

_Megatron fell back on his original caste designation as miner: he began to dig, to pry away at the ruined-yet-interlocking metal. He tried to focus, and he did; but it was not enough to drive the nolstagia away. Absolutely nothing was perfect, but things had, in a way, been...simpler, when he was a miner. He had led then too, and it had been life-and-death at times as well. Especially in dangerous sites under the jurisdiction of higher overseer castes that did not understand or care. But he had never trained anyone to kill then. He had lost friends at the mines, but not to themselves; never had one so thoroughly warp before his eyes that they were almost unrecognizable, never made him wonder, 'how, how could this happen?' _

_In a few cycles, Megatron had breached fully._

_He climbed down, where the only light came from the tunnel he'd made. After again checking the small beacons he had left at his shipwreck and the top of the portal's makeshift entrance, Megatron stepped forward. Those beacons were all he had in the way of possessing a back-up for finding his way out again. It would be...problematic, if he ran into anything that would interrupt their signal to his sensors. _

_The Decepticon lord increased his underlighting before moving onward with his blade unsheathed. The station seemed abandoned, but it would be beyond foolish if he left himself completely unguarded. And still even with Megatron's attempts, the dark of the ruined station's depths was a deep darkness._

_But soon he crossed what seemed to have been a wide space into a hallway, still just as dark. He walked, the only sounds his own footsteps._

_Megatron stopped when he heard a low, indistinct growl._

_The warrior whirled around, blade raised-but paused when he found a small winged figure curled up in a crevice. His eyes (one scarred) squeezed shut even tighter under the Decepticon lord's underlighting, before finally wrapping an arm over them. The flyer made more low, moaning growls in his sleep. _

_Megatron regarded the younger Cybertronian carefully. It wasn't just one scar over the eye, but multiple ones all over the rest of his face, his entire body. Not to mention fresh injuries, and others makeshiftedly tended to and in the middle of self-repair. The young mech needed a doctor._

_The older warrior could find no Decepticon or Autobot symbol, but wounds and scars could be covering that up. His optics narrowed as he examined the wings, the flyer's entire build...it was looking very specialized, like a..._

_Megatron's optics widened and he took a sudden step back as he realized that was a __**Seeker**__. Had the Autobots taken some from Vos and the Crystal City before the siege? Then he must be one of the dwindling Unaligned-_

_Megatron's jaw clenched as he felt a line snap under his heel._

_Immediately his vision turned upside down, the scarred Seeker a flurry of movement and gunmetal gray as he scrambled away._

_When Megatron's vision readjusted to being hung upside down, he checked himself over. Wire wrapped around his waist, pinning his arm to his side-but not his sword arm, which was free. He followed the line up, to where it was secured to a ledge, the hall's ceiling broken._

_He looked back down and found the Seeker with a rifle trained on him. Yet the young mech's violet optics were wide and petrified. They focused on Megatron's sword arm. _

_The Decepticon lord stayed very still. _

_Both knew he could break free easily. And soon they realized that might be less of an issue as the wire dangerously creaked, and Megatron felt himself minutely lower._

_"I mean you no harm," Megatron began, trying to make his voice as soothing as possible, as sincere as possible._

_Still the Seeker jumped, and Megatron instinctively tensed for an incoming shot, but the trigger wasn't pulled, not even by accident._

_"You speak!" The young mech squeaked in a shrill voice. It grew slightly lower, more growling as it grew more hesitant, when he continued, "And you don't have...your optics are not v-violet."_

_Megatron blinked. "Not like yours, no."_

_"You're not o-one of them?" The Seeker continued as if he didn't hear Megatron, his voice wondering, yet still cracking slightly. But then it grew shrill again, even higher than last, as he started to shriek, "But n-no, __**NO**__, you weren't here before, you weren't one of my comrades or one of the scientists or guards or any of them-!"_

_The Seeker's rifle started to tremble dangerously._

_"No, I was not here before," Megatron began calmly, clearly. "My ship was damaged, and low on fuel, I had to land here. That was only a few cycles ago."_

_The Seeker just stared at him. His rifle had stilled, but he was starting to hyperventilate instead._

_"What is your name, little one?" Megatron asked, quiet. A strand of his wire snapped._

_"W-what? I don't-I mean-it's-it's-" And the Seeker finally let his rifle fall away, a claw reaching up to cover his optic. Before his claws shielded it, Megatron realized the scar over it was shaped like a large 'X,' that stretched across half his face. "-it's-it's S-Starscream."_

_"How long have you been here, Starscream?" Megatron's voice grew even quieter._

_"I-" and then Starscream's violet optics snapped, refocusing. He raised his rifle again. He was glaring now. "Turn it off. Your underlighting, off, right now, before they-"_

_Megatron immediately began to dim it, but still wretched roars and shrieks sounded. Something scrambled, pounded, shrieked toward them._

_"__**Scrap**__," hissed Starscream as he retrained his rifle at the approaching roars. Megatron swiftly cut through his tearing wire, and landed on his feet next to the Seeker, the vibration unsteadying the younger mech. But to Megatron's minor admiration, Starscream regained his footing quickly._

_"Who are they?" Megatron asked lowly as he raised his blade arm and warmed up his cannon._

_Starscream shook his head. "T-they don't go down...they don't go down..."_

_"Easy?" Megatron deadpanned, optics narrowed._

_"At all," Starscream snapped, slight hysteria twisting his voice. "They don't go down at all, they-we just fight long enough until we can make a run for it. There should be a place where we can lose them at...or...you said you had a ship?"_

_Before Megatron could respond, a large figure rounded a corner. It was a large Seeker, with one wing blown off and violet optics, dashed forward with a savage speed, claws raised._

_Megatron lunged forward, and Starscream shot, covering him instantly._

_###_

The Decepticon leader's optics narrowed at the memory. Of course, their eventual escape had not been easy, or quick...

Megatron left the groundbridge's light, solidly stepping onto the ship's bridge. He glanced at Breakdown upgrade to letting Knock Out limp at his side, heard the young medic mutter that he just needed some chem relief. Then Megatron glanced to his communications officer.

"Soundwave, what news do you have?"

**A/N: Ratchet's alert to get the heck out of dodge is taken off from Azula in the original animated show "Avatar the Last Airbender" pretty much word for word.**

**Knock Out and Breakdown's very last 'jerk-glitch' exchange is taken off from the TV show "Supernatural."**

**And another flashback. I'm beginning to think the flashback style in this is inspired by LOST's own iconic use of flashbacks. Anyway, this is like the earliest flashback in the timeline so far: Megatron meets Starscream in abandoned space station/lab, Starscream hears about the siege of Crystal City (and Vos), then later on Jetfire is killed. Again, all of these are like snippets that should be explained further later. (Though I'm seriously thinking about doing a prequel to this of the Mirrorverse pre-Earth that massively expands on these flashback snippets.)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Title: and the glass zone shatters**

**Chapter: Seven**

**Summary: On this side of the mirror, the Decepticons have a higher tolerance for humans. The Autobots, on the other hand, don't really give much thought to the skin-jobs beneath their feet… [Shattered Glass/Mirrorverse Transformers Prime AU]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers Prime or LOST (i.e. Kate Austen, Edward Mars, James "Sawyer" Ford).**

**Warning(s): violence, language**

**Rating: PG-13**

**A/N: Please remember to leave feedback. Thank you editoress, nellasaur, wherearemychips and sweetsweetsorrow at tumblr for their feedback on this. Thank you to all the reviewers. Hope everyone enjoys the next chapter.**

**This also should be in continuity with my other mirrorverse!TFP fic written for the TF-Prime Livejournal community's August challenge, "it's science," unless noted otherwise.**

**The below is inspired by another fanfic for a videogame (full credit at the end of the chapter).**

"Your men will be too late, Fowler."

Megatron stared at the agent's glaring face on the computer screen.

"Starscream's not the only one who's been captured—"

"My people are searching for Kate and the other humans as well." Megatron continued before Fowler could say anything more. "I have no intention of groundbridging your soldiers there."

"My team and I will search the base, and will suffer no distraction." Megatron's voice lowered as Fowler's glare intensified. "And though your men are aware of the risks, there's still little point in increasing the chance for casualties when it can be avoided."

Fowler sighed, but said nothing more.

###

Since the Omicron Labs, Starscream's audio receptors had been finely trained to listen for screams. Thus they were a sure way to drag him from unconsciousness.

Starscream twitched, grumbling around his gag. The screams sounded like a femme's, long and thin...really thin... But muffled, he could hear the distinct sound of a desperate voice around a gag.

Starscream's eyes snapped open. Still, sight was blurry: above the dark inanimate Cybertronian was a small figure hanging.

The image solidified before Starscream's optics: a long, thin red-tinted pole now worked its way out of the back of the dark Cybertronian's head. Deep brown waves fell over that pole...the texture...hair; that was hair...

The Seeker really comprehended how a human's scream wasn't that different from a Cybertronian's. Why, it could be just as loud.

The human hair was curly, wild, and dark as...

"Kmf," Starscream garbled around his own gag, completely butchering Kate's name. He could see her gag now, thin wire; well, thin to him, probably thick to her...oh _frag_ this entire situation.

Starscream tried to shake his head of the fog once Kate's gagged voice shifted to something that sounded like his name and a human curse, all in a wild questioning fearing tone. Any sense in Kate's voice was lost as it degenerated into more pained, baffled howls.

Focus, focus...Starscream trained his optics harder on Kate and that dark Cybertronian, trying to harden that fuzzy image, trying to get his mind to catch up. Now he could comprehend that with the way her hair fell, Kate was upside down. Wires wrapped tight around her eyes too, denying her vision. Kate solidified further; Starscream saw most of her body was encased in metal, some contraption that had slid out from a ceiling panel. Still her head did not dangle-she seemed unable to move it much at all. It was stiff and at an angle...

Starscream blinked.

His optics went back to the dark Cybertronian, to the pole—no, it was glass tubing. Thin, red-tinted glass tubing coming out of the Cybertronian's head, stretching up at an angle below Kate's hair, where it...stopped. Where was it stopping at? Starscream couldn't see it go past her hair. When the Seeker strained to see where the tubing stopped, he saw its red tint drip.

Starscream's optics widened. They watched the red drip down, bulge into a red bead and fall down from the tubing. Starscream followed its descent, to where it fell into a red puddle (_nonono_) but it wasn't just red it was (_nonononononono_) all of it was there was that red tint not just red it slid down the tubing not immobile not red but (_**NO**_)—

Kate's screams reached a new feverous pitch.

Starscream wasn't sure if he was glad the human was still alive or wished she were dead, with that tubing embedded in the back of her skull. He couldn't even comprehend how that was possible. Humans were sturdier than he imagined, but they could only take so much...the blood loss would surely...

"I was hoping you'd join us, Seeker."

Starscream's optics snapped to Ratchet as he came into full view. The Autobot spoke again, "You're a bit of a scientist yourself, aren't you, Starscream?" Ratchet smiled thinly. "You _might_ be able to truly appreciate this..."

The Seeker shouted something indecipherable and in a voice that alternated from a throaty barking growl, to a high shrill thing as he madly fought against his restraints. His rage almost drowned out Kate's screams that were steadily becoming more warped by the minute.

"...But I rather doubt it," Ratchet said before he pressed down on the box containing Starscream's half-spark, and this time the Seeker's agonized scream did momentarily drown out Kate's own shrieks.

###

"They didn't seem to be expecting us," Breakdown muttered as he fired another shot at the 'Bot troopers.

"M.E.C.H. grunts might've retreated a bit prematurely," Knock Out replied once he was close enough to say it low in Breakdown's audio receptor. "Maybe those coordinates were more of a case of in-fighting than a trap..."

Megatron's voice crackled over their inner commlink: "Split up, cover more ground—Breakdown, come with me; Knock Out, go with Soundwave; Shiv, Katal, stay together." The Eradicon troopers remained at each other's sides, while Breakdown and Knock Out separated. "Soundwave has jammed Autobot and M.E.C.H. communications—they'll be confused for a limited time, but not completely blind to this, so strike fast."

"No kidding," Knock Out grumbled, following after Soundwave as Breakdown went with Megatron, Shiv and Katal running in the other direction.

###

Soundwave slammed another 'Bot trooper unconscious before freezing at Knock Out's hissed, "Oh _frag_..."

The communications officer turned back, finding the physician in a dented doorway. He went to him, looking over his shoulder.

Knock Out stood over a downed and slashed up 'Bot drone, on top of a battered down door. Before him was a Cybertronian-sized room with seven small rolling stretchers. Surgical drones hung on the walls, in stasis.

On the stretchers were humans in varying states of dissection. The only ones who were whole enough to resemble Fowler's pictures were the three youths—and even they were still cut up below the neck in such a way as to be lethal.

Soundwave touched Knock Out's shoulder, and the medic turned to him with a cool mask.

_'I sense no human life signatures,' _Soundwave's facial screen read out. _'Take the blood samples.'_

Knock Out entered the room, stepping over the 'Bot trooper as a small syringe popped out from one of his arm compartments.

Soundwave followed, taking photos of the humans. Given the crisis, the best they could do was to bring back proof of the victims' demise. There probably would not be time to bring them back to honor human funerary practices...

Soundwave photographed the youths first, as Knock Out was siphoning samples from the adult corpses now virtually unrecognizable.

The communications officer heard a small shuffling; it sounded like the medic was rolling over one of the human bodies.

"Hey, Sound...flip your human over. There a hole in the back of his head?"

Soundwave followed Knock Out's direction, and in the back of the smallest human's skull was a round cavity.

He turned to the medic, nodding.

"Got holes in all the adults...I'm done here, I'll check the others..." The two 'Cons switched groups, Soundwave taking pictures of the adults while Knock Out took blood samples from the youths and gently looked under their heads.

"All of them with holes in the back of their fragging skulls." Knock Out stood back, arms folded. "There's something...off about this...I doubt that's standard dissection...even if it's a whole other species—" Knock Out stopped as Soundwave went for a computer panel in the room.

"Anything?" Knock Out asked in a low voice, looking over Soundwave's shoulder at his rapidly typing claws.

_'"Almost—yes, here—a map!"'_ Soundwave said in _**Jetfire**_**'s** voice, and Knock Out almost decked the communications officer, but of course his news was good. Still, to use their lost comrade's voice in a situation eerily similar to what led to his death was not good for the nerves. Times like this made Knock Out wish Soundwave would feel comfortable enough to use his own voice...

_'"Sending to Breakdown now,"' _Soundwave said with a recording of Knock Out. _'And Lord Megatron' _flashed across his facial shield.

The actual Knock Out asked, "What about the—?"

_'"All of them with holes in the back of their fragging skulls,"'_ Soundwave repeated Knock Out's voice again, this time from seconds ago. His claws madly typed as he searched for information that would shed light on what the humans' lives were extinguished for. Perhaps there was a connection between that and Starscream and Kate. Half a minute later he finally clicked on some promising files.

The two 'Cons scanned surveillance of the human targets, data read-outs, and other documents with a silence that grew deeper by the minute as dots were quickly connected, leaps made to get the gist of Ratchet's plans.

"..._**Scrap**_," Knock Out breathed out in a low growl of a voice.

The two 'Cons rushed out after Soundwave had swiftly downloaded the files and sent them to Megatron and Breakdown and the Eradicons, along with the map.

###

Starscream willed Ratchet to monologue, the Seeker screamed the question to the 'Bot around his gag again and again, "What are you doing? _**What are you doing**_?" Just anything to buy time for...for what? It was a desperate hope that his comrades would find him...again...not again, he did not know this human at all, but—not again, he did not want another life slain in front of his eyes while captured by the Autobots, while completely helpless to do anything...Primus, she may've tried to hijack Knock Out, but Kate had nothing to do with any of this, nothing at all...

Starscream stilled, chest heaving, once the older scientist went to a computer console, typing. Soon after the supercomputer program Teletraan spoke in its familiar neutral tone, "Commencing upload."

Kate's screams reached a new pitch as the machinery roared to life. Starscream's throat grew dry and quiet, just as when Cliffjumper had extinguished Jetfire's spark right before his optics. Still he fought against his restraints, though half his mind told him it was futile.

Kate twitched while she shrieked, but the restraints and the tubing still immobilized her.

Starscream saw arcing lines of energy start surging down the tube from Kate's head and into the dark Cybertronian's skull. As they went, Kate's voice was fading, more and more as that energy surged faster and faster down the tubing.

Finally Kate grew silent, and there was a slight but definitive slacking in her jaw and the rest of her body, in the way it stilled.

Starscream's spark pounded. He watched the last of the energy pass through the tubing into the dark Cybertronian.

Starscream watched its facial shield—nothing. It was just as inanimate as before. Just as still as Kate was now, her hair barely moving...

Starscream shuddered, yet he did not force back a shriek. He could feel nothing in his throat—nothing at all, really. It was almost that same surreal detachment that seized him once he heard Cliffjumper's shot and Jetfire went down, down; never got up again, even when he snapped out of it and started screaming for him—

Ratchet then pulled out the Seeker's half-spark and placed it again in the darkly painted Cybertronian's spark chamber.

Its facial shield finally flickered.

A green line twisted across it, not unlike Soundwave's—_Kate_'s screams _crackled_ alive through the _Cybertronian's_ _vocalizer_ as that line solidified into two round dots, the optics reduced to that through the glass shielding. Those _green_ dots (green like Kate's fleshy wet eyeballs) focused on Ratchet, and were such simple round shapes as to make Kate's vocalizer shrieks even more disturbing to hear—what the Pit, what the Pit just—did Ratchet just—upload, Teletraan said 'upload,' had he just uploaded Kate into that Cy—?

"—_ck. What the hell is this, who the hell are you, what—? Starscr—" _That was definitely **Kate**'s voice running through that Cybertronian's vocalizer, and its green optics alighted on him.

"—_scream, Starscream, what the h—? No, I—" _The dark Cybertronian—**Kate** began to struggle against her table's restraints, optics darting around madly.

Ratchet looked down at her, musing aloud, "Human brainwaves and consciousness still didn't generate a new spark...but it can apparently connect to a spark ready-made, even half of one...or perhaps only an immortal one? Certainly an average spark cannot be split in half and survive..."

Though Starscream heard Ratchet as if the older mech were a quite a distance away, the dark Cybertronian—Kate didn't pay any attention to Ratchet's analysis, still struggling madly in that dark Cybertronian body with the red Autobot symbol flashing mockingly on her head.

"—_I—no, I—don't, __**don't**__ touch me, you can't touch me—!" _Starscream helplessly watched her head try to twist, but the tubing and the enclosing headrest kept her immobile._ "Out, get it out, inside, it's—no, I want it out, get out of my—my hair...I can't...feel it, my hair...oh Christ, where is my—toes? I can't, my—where are my toes—? There's nothing, nothing nothing nothing—"_

Ratchet wrapped one hand around the tubing, and pulled its end out of Kate's human skull.

"—_out, out of my head, out of my head, get it out right now you—"_

Starscream stared as the Cybertronian continued to ramble quickly in Kate's voice and struggle against the table's restraints, screaming that the tubing be removed from her head. While Kate's human body lifelessly swayed back and forth, the tubing out of her head, free—with a gaping bloody hole through skin and bone and all that hair.

"Teletraan, disengage the human," Ratchet said, other free end of the tubing still in his hand.

The Seeker winced as the metal casing snapped open, and Kate's human body fell and hit the steel floor, crumpling into a heap with a sickening smack.

"Reengage," Ratchet said, bringing the tubing up to the metal contraption and waiting for its sensors to pick up. A second later it did; the contraption shifted, reconfiguring its shape to connect to the tubing with a hiss and a snap.

"Teletraan, commence overriding Subject 8 with your beta copy."

"Affirmative."

Starscream's muffled screaming returned while Kate shouted "_**WHAT**_?"

It started again, energy crackling down the tubing and into the dark Cybertronian's head, who writhed and screamed with Kate's voice—

And then there was a loud sound in Starscream's audio receptors and sudden smoke in his optics, the Seeker wasn't sure what exploded and what didn't.

But soon all that mattered was that one bond had weakened, and his right claw was free.

**A/N: The above inspired/directly transplanted from the Portal fanfic (for both games) **_**You Monster**_** by Kamiki77, here on the site. It's really good, and recommended on TVTropes. Speaking of TVTropes, its "Brain Uploading" page (which also mentions Portal and what the above fic deals with) was inspirational for this too. Besides this mind uploading's precedent in fiction, it's apparently given some real research focus, i.e. "Uploading" by John Filiss, the Blue Brain Project (though to my understanding, it focuses more on creating a cybernetic brain than transferring a preexisting one), etc.**

**There's also apparently RL precedent for people surviving something stuck in their brain, i.e news articles **_**'Miracle Baby: 'Doctors Save Toddler Impaled in the Brain by Hook**_**, **_**Man survives 4-inch nail in skull**_**.**

**The above mind upload/transfer idea is combined with Beast Wars' plot with splitting Protoform X/Rampage's immortal spark (meant to duplicate G1 Starscream's immortal spark) in half, the other half giving life to Dinobot's clone, Dinobot 2.**

**And apparently something like this (human mind in robot body) did happen in G1.**

**This is not me bashing TFP's canon human kids**—**and I will just sorta hint at/say kinda upfront that the ultimate fate of Jack, Raf and Miko isn't over yet...**


	8. Chapter 8

**Title: and the glass zone shatters**

**Chapter: Eight**

**Summary: On this side of the mirror, the Decepticons have a higher tolerance for humans. The Autobots, on the other hand, don't really give much thought to the skin-jobs beneath their feet… [Shattered Glass/Mirrorverse Transformers Prime AU]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers Prime or LOST (i.e. Kate Austen, Edward Mars, James "Sawyer" Ford).**

**Warning(s): violence, language**

**Rating: PG-13**

**A/N: Please remember to leave feedback. Thank you editoress, nellasaur, wherearemychips and sweetsweetsorrow at tumblr for their feedback on this. Thank you to all the reviewers. Hope everyone enjoys the next chapter.**

**This also should be in continuity with my other mirrorverse!TFP fic written for the TF-Prime Livejournal community's August challenge, "it's science," unless noted otherwise.**

Starscream yanked off the rest of his restraints and stumbled off the operating table.

He rushed for Kate's own table, fighting back the urge to immediately shift to jet mode. Things were too chaotic and close quarters for flight, no matter how appealing the action would be right now.

The Seeker still couldn't pinpoint the explosions' range and full extent, but one had seemingly hit Ratchet or forced him back—he was no longer near Kate, thank Primus. Actually, Starscream couldn't find him anywhere, and...that was less reassuring, given the chances the attack had killed him, knocked him unconscious, or he was just lurking out of sight...

Starscream paid a third of his mind to trying to decipher his smoky and sparking surroundings, and the rest to Kate (and a fraction of his mind went to noting how furious Megatron would be over that, who typically advised him to know the battlefield much more thoroughly).

The tubing had been disconnected from the ceiling contraption and link with Teletraan, and enough of Kate's operating table had been damaged that one of her own hands was free. That one had immediately reached up and worked to pull out the tubing that was still attached to the back of her head.

"Error, error," Starscream heard her mutter, "erro—no, shut up, get out, _out_—"

Something churned uncomfortably in Starscream's mind as he remembered that Teletraan had been in the middle of overriding the dark Cybertronian with a copy of itself when the explosions started—

Kate finally yanked the tubing out with a pained shout as Starscream reached her side and immediately tore off the rest of her restraints. They had to get out now, there was no time to figure out if Teletraan's override had worked at all or not.

Kate's now metallic hands immediately went to the back of her head-she shrieked as shielding snapped shut before them, sealing the hole in her head. She still ran her hands over her now smooth, far too smooth head, her hands roving around far too fast and Starscream heard her start to hyperventilate-the Seeker seized her and pulled her away from the table, his optics darting around for the exit, for his comrades who had surely arrived and started blowing everything up...

"Your chest-"

At the rising mania in Kate's voice, Starscream looked down.

Yes, the gaping surgical hole in his chest remained, his now too-small spark throwing off a sickly light. More importantly, Starscream realized he had been disarmed, missiles gone. But perhaps some of his more embedded weapons systems were still functional, such as—he quickly made a certain gesture with his fingers. He frowned when his arm didn't shift to the small cannon. He sharpened his claws instead.

Starscream noticed Kate's optics now darted from his gaping chest to his lengthened claws. He didn't sheath those (that would be beyond foolish), but fell back on 'Commander' tone: "Deal with that later, we need to go—"

"Starscream, over here!" The Seeker and the human-turned-Cybertronian's heads snapped in Knock Out's direction, currently taking down 'Bot drones one by one. Soundwave dealt with his own wave of enemies, but took a moment to stab a finger at an overturned computer console for makeshift cover.

Starscream and Kate began to move—but the Seeker's optics fell on Kate's small broken human body. He snatched it up as he ran with her new Cybertronian shell.

Knock Out and Soundwave provided the two cover while they dove behind the broken console.

Soundwave then pressed forward on his own as Knock Out dove behind with the two, eyes scanning every inch of their bodies.

"Kate?" Knock Out said stiffly, and the dark Cybertronian jumped slightly, then slowly nodded her head.

"Y-yes," she said, then jerked as one of the drones screamed.

"What did you and Soundwave find?" Starscream asked tersely, wanting to distract all of them as much as possible from the visceral sensation of their insane situation. Figuring out what the Pit just happened was the better option, especially since Knock Out and Soundwave apparently had a clue.

But the medic shook his head as he began to pull out supplies to quickly patch up Starscream's chest. "Later—now hold still—actually, Kate, if you could just hold him down—?"

Kate flinched, but then stiffly grabbed the Seeker's shoulders. "Like this?" Her green optics blinked at Starscream—he was muttering something under his breath.

"Perfect," Knock Out breathed as he pulled out an folding metal sheet from a compartment panel on his body, and his arm switched to a blowtorch.

Kate jerked at another sound from battle, the noise of someone choking wetly. Still, Starscream muttered under his breath, optics half-lidded.

"What are you doing?" Kate asked, tightening her hold on the Seeker's shoulders.

Starscream blinked, then said, "I was counting to five."

"Really?"

"Well, in Cybertronian."

"No wonder it sounded like gibberish to me-"

Starscream's jaw clenched as Kate heard a horrible hiss, and her hands tightened over the Seeker's shoulders, somewhat settling his twitch down. Starscream's eyes were squeezed shut. Kate tried not to look at Knock Out quickly solder a metal covering over the hole in the Seeker's chest with a crackling blowtorch where his hand should've been. That then shifted into some other device connected to his wrist that sprayed out a fog that swiftly—and given Starscream's cringe—painfully cooled the solder job down.

"Good job distracting him," Knock Out muttered to Kate as his hand returned.

The dark Cybertronian numbly nodded her head while Starscream ran a quick claw over his chest. He snatched the claw away, holding it out to the medic. His mouth twisted, and he snarled, "I assume you brought a weapon in case Ratchet disarmed my own, Doctor?"

"Most patients ask for some sweet confectionary on Earth after an appointment, Commander..." And Knock Out slid a blaster into Starscream's claw with a bitter smirk.

It did not escape either 'Con's notice how Kate stared at the gun, how her fingers twitched.

Knock Out's face grew flat and Starscream's optics narrowed.

"You just had your mind..." and Starscream instinctively gestured with the gun hand, while the other felt very keenly the blood staining his palm and the small weight below it, the rustle of human hair. "..._uploaded_ into a wholly new body for frag's sake, do you really think you're up to handling a weapon this very instant? Who knows how your human senses could've transferred, how they're adjusting—"

"It might do more harm than good right now," Knock Out said lowly.

Kate's new dark metallic digits clenched in her lap.

"I can see just fine, and I remember how to shoot and I still have hands with damn opposable thumbs and everything, and you _still_ want to send me out in _that_—" and on cue another round of laser fire sounded, "—unarmed?" For all her defiance, it didn't escape either 'Con's notice the fear in her vocalizer.

Knock Out asked, in an even lower voice, "What was the last thing Ratchet did before Soundwave and I arrived?"

Starscream refused to let out a shaky breath. "Started downloading a copy of Teletraan into her before the ex—"

The ground shook as another explosion sounded, fired by whom, no one could be sure. Knock Out shoved both Starscream and Kate away as his hand shifted to a buzzsaw. Starscream looped an arm around Kate's and raised his gun as they ran for the still smoking exit. Starscream did his best to make sure that the arm looped around Kate's, with the hand that held her cooling human body, did not touch her...

It was chaos. They saw flashes of Knock Out and Soundwave, then lost track. Starscream shot down some drones ahead-then others rushed both their sides, too fast, too close, he couldn't take them all or evade them easily-

"Frag it all," Starscream snarled before shoving the gun into Kate's hands. "Take the left, but stay close!" Gun no longer in hand, Starscream slashed through his side's drones with his clawed hand, while the other still held the human body.

Starscream heard the scattered shots of laser fire from Kate's side, and he turned to find that she'd wounded some drones, but none had fallen. It was sufficient and the most Starscream had hoped for under the circumstances.

"Good, keep going," Starscream said as he looped his arm around hers again and they ran. Kate fired over her shoulder when a 'Bot got too close; Starscream hacked through enemies in their path.

"Starsc—" Kate already sounded so panicked, he turned before she could finish his name. He followed her sight, and saw Knock Out get slammed in the back by a drone, only for Arcee to walk over and aim her gun for the medic's head.

Soundwave stopped struggling with Bumblebee as the blue femme indicated how close her weapon was to his comrade. The young scout handcuffed Soundwave without a sound.

"We have to—" Kate started again, but already she was being twisted back in Knock Out and Soundwave's direction.

Starscream had immediately rushed forward, claws raised. "Take the blue one, I'll—"

"Teletraan Beta, stop Starscream."

Before the Seeker could comprehend Ratchet's voice, a foot roughly but quickly hooked his own and brought him down.

He twisted, but that only resulted in landing on his back, hard. He dropped Kate's human body.

Instinctively, the Seeker struck with his claws, even with the gun over his head now—

Kate shouted, and Starscream stared at his arm embedded up to its wrist in her lower chassis, the gun he'd given her still trained on his head by her wavering wrist.

Kate's hyperventilating grew louder, and Starscream tried to ignore the pounding in his head and the threat of his own hyperventilation, he could not lose it now. The Seeker moved to yank out his claw—Kate now literally had the other half of his spark, even if she bled out she should not die due to its effect, and he had to be mobile—

Ratchet walked forward. Kate immediately raised her gun and shot several blasts at the Autobot scientist. Starscream froze, shocked by this rapid shift.

Ratchet dodged most of Kate's shots, only grazed by one.

Starscream pulled out his claw and rushed for Ratchet, whose arm switched to a blowtorch.

"Teletraan Beta, I said _stop_ Starscream."

The Seeker belatedly realized he should not have turned his back on Kate _again_ in his eagerness to fight Ratchet, to finally get his claws on that bastard—

Starscream coughed out mech fluid as the shots struck his back, one tearing straight through his shoulder. And Ratchet—_oh scrap_—

The Seeker gagged as the Autobot scientist embedded his non-blowtorch fist into his chassis, cracking it, even so far as tearing Knock Out's patch job above.

Ratchet yanked out his fist, and Starscream fell, coughing. He struggled to get up. He shouted when Ratchet roughly kicked him in his damaged side, sent him rolling to—

"Bulk, take him."

Starscream had a half a second to look up to find the large green 'Bot bear down on him, another half to arch back. Bulkhead was still faster, grabbing his wrist, crushing it—

The Seeker managed to slash at Bulkhead's already damaged eye. That only managed to make the 'Bot squeeze his wrist harder. The Wrecker pounded another fist into his chassis.

Starscream gagged on his mech fluid, but managed to jerk a leg around Bulkhead's, try to trip him up, break his stance. It half worked, Starscream almost made it; but the larger 'Bot was quick and caught on, and they rolled, Bulkhead making sure to use his superior weight to his advantage.

Still the Seeker kicked and clawed the larger 'Bot trying to pin him down, still worked to further gouge out Bulkhead's shattered optic, this time made the enemy shout.

The larger 'Bot's mouth then clamped shut. The Wrecker glared down at the Seeker, mech fluid pouring down half his face. His hand finally clamped down on one of Starscream's kicking legs, squeezed hard, kept pulling and pulling until—

The Seeker screamed, collapsing as his leg broke away, the rest of his body shuddering.

_Get up get up you've had worse get the frag up_

Starscream shrieked again when Bulkhead's foot stamped down on the stump of his leg, and his struggle to rise immediately stopped. His claws ran down Bulkhead's shell, but they were weakening, and the larger 'Bot didn't react.

"Give me that, now," Starscream heard Ratchet order, and the Seeker stiffly twisted so that he could see the Autobot scientist right side up, no longer looking up at Bulkhead.

Starscream saw Kate on her knees, gripping her head with both hands, gun on the floor and mech fluid dripping from the hole in her lower chassis.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Soundwave still immobile as he watched Arcee keep her gun trained on Knock Out, still fighting to escape the drones. Finally Arcee popped out another blaster from her arm and fired at Soundwave.

Bulkhead pressed down harder on the Seeker's stump of a leg, strangling Starscream's mad jerk to break free. It shifted into a gurgle as he clamped his mouth shut over more mech fluid.

Knock Out froze and the drone immediately twisted his arms back, the other snapping Energon cuffs over them. The young medic's face had grown blank and cold, with a slight edge of rage.

But mercifully Soundwave remained upright, otherwise composed still, only slightly hunched over the new hole in his lower chassis while Bumblebee held his shoulders.

Bulkhead grunted, and tossed Ratchet the Seeker's leg, the mech fluid arcing before falling to the floor.

Ratchet caught it, then made sure to drip its mech fluid over Kate's human body, lying half-forgotten on the floor.

Starscream looked more closely at what line the fluid was pouring from. It fell specifically from his jet fuel line, pouring all over Kate's human body—Starscream's optics darted to the blowtorch on Ratchet's hand—

The Seeker arched up, and this time Bulkhead not only stamped down harder on his leg's stump, but another foot pressed down on his head. Starscream winced, choked back a whimper, but found that even from this position, he could still see somewhat, at least only Ratchet and Kate in front. He couldn't turn his head now to check on his comrades.

Starscream watched Ratchet disengage his blowtorch—" Teletraan Beta, take this—" and throw it to Kate.

Stiffly but obediently, Kate caught the blow torch.

"If you flick that switch—" Ratchet began, and the programming was apparently well enough that it could even follow implication, for Kate immediately obeyed and the torch roared to life, "—yes, that's good."

Ratchet tilted his head when Kate continued flicking his blowtorch on and off, on and off. Starscream breathed harshly, wondering when he was going to start full out hyperventilating again, Ratchet was going to—he did not want to think about what Ratchet was about to order done—

Bulkhead pressed down harder, and Starscream bit his tongue, his claws digging into the floor.

Starscream's leg in hand, Ratchet reached down with his free hand for Kate's human body. He still curiously watched the human-turned-Cybertronian flick the blowtorch on and off, her head tilted toward it as if hypnotized.

"Teletraan Beta—" Ratchet started as he picked up the human body drenched in Starscream's jet fuel.

"Ratchet, please don't make her do this—" Starscream started to beg, his voice heightening in fear, and pain as Bulkhead stomped down even harder to silence him.

"—take this human—" And Ratchet threw Kate's human body. Kate's new Cybertronian shell caught it with her free hand, the other with the torch currently flicked off.

"—please, I'm begging you—" Starscream gritted his dental plates as Bulkhead pressed down even more, "-don't do this, don't-" Bulkhead stomped, and the Seeker shouted.

"—and burn it," Ratchet said, staring at Kate's facial shield intently.

She flicked the blowtorch on.

And off.

And again and again it burned then shut off. All the while Kate's optics looked down at her old human body, dripping blood and mech fluid.

"F—" Starscream choked out, wondering when his skull would cave in as Bulkhead just pressed down deeper, "—fight it, the programming—you_ are_ fighting it—K—Kate-"

Ratchet's optics narrowed as Kate violently flinched at her name, roughly flicking the blowtorch on. Her optics glared, unseeing, hating. Starscream's eyes widened, horrified at what he might have struck upon...

"Teletraan Beta, burn Katherine Anne Austen."

The dark Cybertronian did not flick the blowtorch off again. Her head bowed, her entire dark metal frame beginning to shake.

Ratchet tilted his head again, eyes narrowing. He shifted Starscream's torn-off leg to his other hand.

"Do—" stomp "—not—" stomp "listen—" and Starscream choked back another shriek as Bulkhead's foot pressed down.

The Seeker shuddered on the ground, feeling completely drained, uncertain if he could say another word.

"Teletraan Beta, I order you to burn_**Kate**_."

The glare remained in those green optics as the dark Cybertronian brought the blowtorch and the body together.

Starscream's voice died in his throat once there was a spark, ignition, and the dark Cybertronian dropped her former shell. Liquid fire danced all over that woman's human body, devouring the flesh, the hair, from head to toe, to freckles. Starscream couldn't rip his optics away or close them, even though every instinct shrieked at him to do so.

Suddenly the pressure was gone and Starscream dimly heard Bulkhead slam into a wall.

The Seeker only had eyes for that dark Cybertronian and her burning human shell. He began to crawl toward it, the stump of his leg dragging.

It wasn't too late, he could still...but he knew, deep down, the futility, it had been too late the minute that dark Cybertronian had spoken with Kate's voice and Kate's human body had crumpled on the ground with a hole in the back of her head...

Ratchet took his optics off the dark Cybertronian. He popped out a blaster and aimed it toward the crawling Seeker, while he still had his torn-off leg hanging at his side.

Kate's Cybertronian shell dashed forward—over her burning human body—and took the blowtorch to Ratchet's hand. He dropped Starscream's leg with an angry curse. Kate grabbed the torn-off leg before it hit the ground; then threw herself to the side as Breakdown barreled into Ratchet.

Before Starscream could make another move, he felt a claw grip his shoulder.

And before he could snap out an attack from sheer panic, Megatron's voice hissed, "Easy, it's me."

The Seeker allowed some relief to seep through.


	9. Chapter 9

**Title: and the glass zone shatters**

**Chapter: Nine**

**Summary: On this side of the mirror, the Decepticons have a higher tolerance for humans. The Autobots, on the other hand, don't really give much thought to the skin-jobs beneath their feetÖ [Shattered Glass/Mirrorverse Transformers Prime AU]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers Prime or LOST (i.e. Kate Austen, Edward Mars, James "Sawyer" Ford).**

**Warning(s): violence, language**

**Rating: PG-13**

**A/N: Please remember to leave feedback. Thank you editoress, nellasaur, wherearemychips and sweetsweetsorrow at tumblr for their feedback on this. Thank you to all the reviewers. Hope everyone enjoys the next chapter.**

**This also should be in continuity with my other mirrorverse!TFP fic written for the TF-Prime Livejournal community's August challenge, "it's science," unless noted otherwise.**

**Wanted to get this chapter out before season 2 completely josses it. And if it does, this will be gleefully even more AU.**

Chapter 9

"Kate—"

Breakdown called to the dark Transformer, after kicking Ratchet away and noting that Lord Megatron had Starscream. He had no clue where his partner was, or Soundwave. The Eradicon Troopers should be covering their rear.

Kate didn't seem to hear, intent as she was on using Stascream's leg to batter a surprised Arcee.

The Autobot femme soon recovered and lashed a shoulder blade out, getting dangerously close.

Breakdown snatched Kate out of the way, as Knock Out ran over Arcee in vehicle mode.

"We need to get her out before Ratchet gives another order!"

Alarmed, Breakdown didn't put Kate down, but ran with her over his shoulder.

"How much of Teletraan did—?" The large 'Con had skimmed his partner and Soundwave's transmitted data package by now.

"Enough to make it a fraggin' problem," was Knock Out's tight response.

Breakdown felt mech fluid drip down his finish, and heard the smaller Cybertronian gasp and shudder over his shoulder.

They dashed out of the lab and ran into the hall, where more Eradicons provided them with cover.

Knock Out switched over to a secure comm, transmitting: 'Need a secure location to get rid of any tracking devices and-slash-or faulty programming, Starscream and Kate can't go on the Nemesis otherwise.'

'Affirmative,' Megatron transmitted back.

Immediately their leader burst out of the lab blade raised, first to clear a path for the others. Starscream clinged to one Eradicon shifted into a racing car; Soundwave on his feet, but with another Eradicon close at hand and eying his lower chassis injury.

It was a mad race tearing through 'Bots and down halls to find a place to hold down the fort. Again the Autobots' supposed MECH allies were conspicously absent, especially in a base that was originally theirs.

Eventually the 'Cons found a set of long tracks in a tunnel, reaching it first and quickly setting up their perimeter.

"Knock Out, do you have everything you need?" Megatron asked as the Eradicons, Soundwave and Starscream set up a block, weapons raised, chassis wounds and a missing leg temporarily ignored.

Breakdown put Kate down, who started to cough, clutching tighter at Starscream's torn off leg.

"Can you remove your mask, to let it out-?"

"No no, I'm not gonna throw up-"

"That sounded wet, are you coughing up any mech flu-?"

"No-"

Knock Out nodded to his leader, "I'll need Soundwave."

Immediately Megatron took Soundwave's place by his second-in-command's side, raising his cannon.

"You can give me Starscream's leg, Knock Out will fix it later," Breakdown told the dark femme, and she stiffly gave him the leg. The larger mech put it down, glanced at his partner, then gently took Kate's shoulder. "Lie back down now."

Knock Out looked at Kate, addressing her and everyone else.

"If Ratchet can transmit to you by comm, we need to block it—Soundwave, if there's anything of Teletraan you can get rid of now, do it—"

The communications officer nodded.

"—and we need to remove any tracking device that might've been implanted in you before getting back to base—I have an anesthetic, Breakdown will hold you down for that—"

The three moved faster than Kate could voice a protest.

Breakdown's grasp was tight, Soundwave was slipping out a cable, Knock Out popped out a syringe—

'She has half my spark, the normal anesthetic may not work!' Starscream urgently commed on a private channel to Knock Out.

The medic quickly masked his horrible shock, switching to the anesthetic custom-made for Starscream's uniquely mutated spark. Ratchet's documentation had not mentioned _that_ in relation to the experiments on converting the energy of human brain waves into a Cybertronian spark.

As Knock Out injected a writihing Kate with the chemical that should drive her into numb unconsciousness, he inwardly cursed himself for failing to notice the exact state of Starscream's spark before, so concerned was he with covering up the vulnerability until they could return to the Nemesis...

The dark Cybertronian sagged in Breakdown's gasp, her optics shutting off, leaving her facial shield nearly as dark as the rest of her body, if not for a small glint of light off its glass.

"She's out, I'm gonna back the others up, or do you need—?"

"Break, please keep holding her down, just in case—doesn't have to be so tight though—I'll explain later," the medic added, after catching the look in his partner's optics. Knock Out couldn't be one hundred percent certain the anesthetic tailored to Starscream's spark would work on half of it stuffed in another body.

Breakdown nodded and stayed put, his hold lessening on the dark femme's shoulders.

Knock Out quickly ran a diagonstic scan over Kate, which softly pinged once it found that there was indeed a tracking device.

He popped out his Energon blade, starting to deftly cut and then pry. Soundwave's cable connected in the gap the medic had opened for him, in the side of her head.

They swiftly and quietly worked over the unconscious femme while the laser fire picked up again.

###

Knock Out roughly threw away the crushed tracker.

"Starscream, your turn!"

The Eradicon Shiv helped Starscream over to Knock Out, who ordered his commander to be laid down.

Knock Out made a similar entry incision for Soundwave to check for any attempts at reprogramming in Starscream. The communications officer's cable withdrew from the Seeker, and he shook his head.

Starscream began to tap his claws impatiently while Knock Out performed the scan again. No pings came up. It seemed the mental and systems blocks the medic himself had developed and implemented out of sheer paranoia after the Omicron labs had held up.

"You're clean—"

The medic's voice grew louder.

"—we can go!"

Megatron commed the Nemesis, "Groundbridge, now."

The portal lit up before them.

Breakdown picked up Starscream's leg and the still unconscious Kate. Knock Out took Starscream, and Soundwave still managed to walk on his own with that Eradicon still close at hand, joined by the rest of his fellows.

"Everyone in, I'll cover you," Megatron said, still shooting.

All the 'Cons (with the human-turned-Cybertronian) escaped through the portal, Megatron the last one in.

###

"All of the lousy fraggers turned tail," Bulkhead growled, the top of his wrist shifting back to a hand. He raised it, trying to stem the flow of mech fluid from his eye, or what was left of it.

Arcee scowled, and began to bark orders.

Bumblebee paid half a mind to her, half to helping Ratchet up. The older 'Bot seemed fine, rubbing the back of his head, staring with clear focus at a computer panel...that was blinking urgently. With a very particularly low noise.

The younger scout's eagerness grew as Ratchet pushed him away and accessed the panel's alert.

"—and get me Silas—"

"Arcee, it's Prime."

The femme whirled on Ratchet, while Bulkhead blinked his remaining functional eye, mouthing 'What.'

'Bee softly beeped, excited, "He's finally back?"

Ratchet nodded without looking at either of the 'Bots, still fixated on the screen. "Activating Space Bridge now."

Arcee's optics darted to the readout on the Space Bridge. There was a lot of red.

"It doesn't look good," she dryly remarked.

"No," Ratchet muttered, 'Bee and Bulk watching him. "The fighting unfortunately damaged critical parts of the Space Bridge network here."

'Bee gave a low, panicked beep. "But you just said you were activating—"

"I can get it working to bridge Prime back into Earth's atmosphere, but afterward it'll need repair."

"...Prime's still gonna be pissed," Bulkhead pointed out in a low voice.

"Well, you weren't the one experimenting, now were you?" Ratchet reminded the taller warrior.

Bulkhead blinked. "Uh...thanks?"

"For what?" Ratchet's voice was growing more impatient.

"Um...for taking responsibility?..."

"Oh, that?" Ratchet scoffed. "Anyway, Prime will wonder what happened to that eye, and I suggest not lying to him—you've no talent for it."

Bulkhead winced. "Well, couldn't you...y'know, now—?"

"Haven't the time still," Ratchet replied too breezily as he continued typing. "Have a Space Bridge to start repairing."

"And we still have this mess to clean up and Silas to interrogate," reminded Arcee.

"Don't you meant talk to?" Bulkhead deadpanned morosely, while 'Bee gave a sympathetic beep.

"Same thing," Arcee said with a shrug, dragging a dead drone to a stretcher for dismantling.

###

"Oooooh, it's like all drenched in mech fluid—!"

"It's not even the right shade of blue, dumb aft—"

"But it's still all so blue, TC—"

"And green too, Warp, it's fraggin' green too, as if that's even relev—"

"Green like—like...um..."

"For Primus' sake, give it up—!"

"—didn't Ratchet experiment with some green stuff? It's green like that—"

"Skywarp, Thundercracker, that's enough," said Optimus Prime from his Ark Carrier.

The blue jet remained in its straight flight, but the violet one spun around him in a dizzying circle.

"But Prime, it's—"

"Warp, listen to something other than your own dumb jokes!" Thundercracker snarled.

Skywarp was about to reply, when he realized his trinemate may have been referencing something else, once he comprehended the crackle of energy growing behind them.

Their sensors watched as the Space Bridge's noise grew louder, started to vibrate—then all of it dimmed, lighting included. Its crackling faded away, as if a whimper.

"Well, that's a fixer-upper right there," Skywarp murmured, awed.

Thundercracker clipped Skywarp's wing, muttering a low curse. Skywarp just giggled in response, his mood switching quickly.

Optimus ignored the two Seekers, initiating radio contact with Ratchet for the first time in three years via the small ship's communications system.

"Welcome back, Optimus," Ratchet's voice filtered over the screen, his voice just a jagged line.

"What happened to the Space Bridge?" Optimus asked in a carefully controlled voice, cutting straight to the point.

"Starscream had been captured for further experimentation, the Decepticons freed him and damaged Base 12 in the process. Shall I go on here, or wait until you're back at base?"

"Wait for my arrival. And no need for a Ground Bridge, we will arrive on our own."

"I had noticed two others with you going through the Space Bridge..."

"Introductions all in due time. I must guide them toward a proper Earth disguise. Prime out."

"Very well, Sir," and the comm went dead.

Optimus glanced at one of his visual screens. It showed him that the Seekers had degenerated into chasing each other around while Skywarp madly laughed and Thundercracker cursed him out.

"Thunder, Warp, follow me," Optimus ordered, and they followed his descent. Though Thundercracker still grumbled, for Warp once more spiraled around his straight flight path.

###

"Ooh, shiny. And look at all the humans, they're so small."

"We're how many feet above them, Warp?"

"They're not much bigger when you're lower," Optimus commed Skywarp and Thundercracker from the ground. The Prime had landed his Ark Carrier, leaving its cloaking device on.

In vehicle mode, Optimus drove steadily toward a human airforce base, one of many. His sensors tracked Thundercracker and Skywarp's descent.

"Why the F-14?" Thundercracker asked Optimus.

"We'll match!" Skywarp butted in on the comm system.

"We _always_ match, Warp."

"You don't want to match?" Skywarp asked, his voice suddenly becoming distressed.

"I didn't say that," Thundercracker grumbled. "And with our coloring, I guess we don't perfectly match after all..."

"Yeah, and I have a more handsome face!"

"...We do have the same face, Warp!"

"The little markings aren't exactly the same—"

"And that's the fraggin' tie breaker?"

"Well, those and our head crests—"

"You'll realize soon enough why the F-14 is ideal," Optimus finally put in. His truck mode started to slow as they neared their destination. "You should be within range now."

"Great! And then can we have fun with 'em, Prime?" Skywarp asked as Thundercracker began to scan one of the jets.

"We operate under a policy of secrecy among the natives," Optimus said. Yet he carefully followed that with, "If seen, extermination is the typical solution to preserve that directive."

After a few cursory swerves in his new F-14 mode, Thundercracker swung too close to the base and swiftly transformed, burying one dark blue heel into one of the buildings. Immediately humans started to scatter, started to scream and shout, started to shoot.

"You don't say?" Thundercracker said in a dry voice as he leveled a missile at the writhing chaos of fleshlings, his violet optics flashing.

"Yes," Optimus replied. "Simply the only way to salvage the situation."

"Not fair, TC, starting without me!" Skywarp shouted as he transformed, yet his violet optics were good-natured over his wide grin. He bent down and grabbed one of the jets, flinging it at a fleeing group of humans and rolling flat over them, leaving angry red stains on the ground.

The Prime parked, calmly watching the two violet-eyed Seekers lay waste to the military base and all its occupants.

**A/N: The TFP looks of Skywarp and Thundercracker in this fic are based on/inspired by these guys' designs on tumblr: the-bass-bot, maiiann, alicynwonderland, restlessinfinity, insideunder. One's from this deviantart artist, Kianite. This one was found on this tumblr, but I don't know if the poster is also the artist: krospleen. It's not like their visual combines all of those, but it pulls from some and just receives inspiration from others. But basically, they largely resemble Starscream (like they are triplets/trinemates), though with different coloring, different head crest styles and different facial markings (more like what the-bass-bot has), and of course, the violet eyes, which should be the first major clue on what their deal is, though explanations should start on them soon... (I do want to try to describe their appearance a little more in-depth within the actual fic, though it may still be a gradual scattering of such info as started here.)**

**Before canon messes with it, this TFP!Skywarp is voiced by Neil Patrick Harris in my head (I mainly think of his roles as Dr. Horrible and the Music Meister in the 'Brave and the Bold' Batman cartoon). And Thundercracker is played by Travis Willingham (I mainly think of his role as Roy Mustang in the English dub of Fullmetal Alchemist). Starscream's leg versus Arcee is a reference to the prequel comic where Starscream beats Arcee (and Cliffjumper) up with her own arm. And my own private thought that given the sharp heel on Starscream's foot**—**well, it looks stab-worthy.**

**And a question: I think Starscream's alt mode in TFP is an F-14, but does anyone know if that's accurate?**


	10. Chapter 10

**Title: and the glass zone shatters**

**Chapter: Ten**

**Summary: On this side of the mirror, the Decepticons have a higher tolerance for humans. The Autobots, on the other hand, don't really give much thought to the skin-jobs beneath their feet… [Shattered Glass/Mirrorverse Transformers Prime AU]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers Prime or LOST (i.e. Kate Austen, Edward Mars, James "Sawyer" Ford).**

**Warning(s): violence, language**

**Rating: PG-13**

**A/N: Important: I just fixed chapter four, apparently it was missing a big chunk of the chapter! Did everyone get the part about Starscream first waking up when captured and finding Ratchet at the end of chapter 4?**

**Please remember to leave feedback. Thank you editoress, nellasaur, wherearemychips and sweetsweetsorrow at tumblr for their feedback on this. Thank you to all the reviewers. Hope everyone enjoys the next chapter.**

**This also should be in continuity with my other mirrorverse!TFP fic written for the TF-Prime Livejournal community's August challenge, "it's science," unless noted otherwise.**

Chapter 10

"Soundwave collected blood samples and took their photos, you should've received the data by now. Their bodies could not be retrieved."

"And Austen?"

"We could not retrieve her body either. There was not enough time to gather similar evidence from her remains," Megatron calmly told Agent Fowler via the live feed on the ship.

Once the call was done and the government liasion flickered out of sight, the old Decepticon's mask fell, replaced by a deep frown.

###

_"Scrap!"_

_Terror and indecision rooting him to the floor, Starscream could only watch Knock Out curse and fend off his—what remained of his trinemates, their reanimated corpses hungrily striking out at the medic..._

_Starscream could never really attack them, never had at the ruins of the Omicron labs, couldn't do it now, but they were going to tear Knock Out apart...but they were his trine!...his trine would not do this to someone who was a complete stranger to them...and though he'd been the worst patient, Knock Out had still tended to him...the medic had even shoved him out of his trine's way, just now, and look where that landed him..._

_Thundercracker roared in a voice barely his own as Knock Out speared his Energon prod through a wing. Knock Out gave a pained shout as Skywarp flung him into the wall opposite the escape pods._

_Stumbling back from the drastically one-sided fight, Starscream hit the work station, making something clatter. His claws instinctively gripped the table to stop the shaking, then his optics darted down, finding the_—

_Starscream gulped._

_The experimental weaponised version of the technology that had purged Starscream of his Dark Energon taint was within just a clawtip's reach._

_But simulations had concluded that the prototype was unstable, especially in its level management, and it never had a chance to be tested before..._

_Knock Out gave a strangled shout, and Starscream looked up to find that the medic's Energon prod was rolling away, Thundercracker holding him from behind, Skywarp pinning him down from above and crouched over his face, starting to tear a claw over one of his eyes, preparing to gouge it out._

_A memory flashed before Starscream_—_he'd been here before, watched his reanimated trinemates slaughter someone who had helped him in the Omicron lab ruins before Megatron had come..._

_No longer thinking, Starscream grabbed the weapon, aimed, and pulled the trigger._

_As the weapon's strong, fast burst of concentrated Energon shot through his trinemates, Starscream thought with growing horror that the pain he'd experienced at his own purging was nothing compared to theirs. Their snarls and roars devolved into twisted shrieks and they scrambled and batted Knock Out away in their frenzy to grasp each other's arms, their claws raking through each other's finish. Starscream's spark pounded when their optics met his own, and it was then he saw true recognition there, filled with overwhelming shock. Shock at what he'd done. His trinemates had retained their sentience, Starscream was sure now, he was_—

_Thundercracker and Skywarp crumpled in each other's arms, their faces slack but still with traces of pain. Knock Out's feet was still caught under them. The medic gingerly extricated himself, coughed mech fluid into a fist. Though that was a weaponised surge of Energon, it had been meant to repel its dark counterpart, and Knock Out was only a little worse for wear after being caught only a little in the blast, but no worse than before while under attack, and he was alive, unlike..._

_Knock Out was staring at him, and Starscream wondered why, until he felt the damned weapon slip and clatter on the floor, his legs shake and give out, knees banging down. The Seeker breathed heavily, optics only for his trinemates, silent and empty and dead again, utterly dead and gone and it. Was. All. His. __**Fault**__._

_Starscream blinked as Knock Out instantly went to his side, kneeling down before him. He stared at the bleeding gash cutting below and above the grounder's eye, its closed lid had provided sufficient protection. First the medic took him by the shoulders, his mouth moved, but Starscream heard nothing, how strange, Knock Out was always so talkative, not unlike himself, though Thundercracker had found it annoying, but Skywarp understood most of the time, though he did agree with their oldest trinemate that Starscream would probably keep talking even when he passed on_—

_Knock Out then laid his claws on either side of his face, and one reached up, wiping at the surface just below his eyes. Starscream was confused, he could not remember receiving a head injury when the remnants of his squad and his trine_—_the Terrorcons had attacked the Nemesis. Though when he focused, Starscream did realize that his cheeks felt wet, but it didn't quite feel like bleeding mech fluid, he was well accustomed to that liquid sensation._

_There was another roar and pounding laser fire. Starscream flinched, but quicker still was Knock Out protectively shielding him._

_"C'mon, we have to go," Knock Out tersely said, Starscream finally able to hear him again. The medic retrieved the damned anti-Dark Energon weapon. Before Knock Out could say otherwise, Starscream quickly went to grab his Energon prod, eyes averting from his downed trinemates._

_The Nemesis suddenly rocked. The escape pods were forced open. Starscream skidded until he planted Knock Out's Energon prod into the cracked floor. Knock Out himself grabbed onto Starscream to stop his own slide. Both flinched as the bodies of Thundercracker and Skywarp slipped all the way into one of the pods, crashing with a disconcerting clang._

_Each of their comms crackled with Blitzwing's furious voice, "Frag it, the Autobots are attacking now_—_!"_

_Starscream's and Knock Out's grip on each other tightened as the Nemesis righted itself._

_Then the entry door burst open as Breakdown was tossed through. Starscream dashed forward, swinging the Energon prod for an incoming Terrorcon's neck, while Knock Out charged the damned weapon._

_The prod smacked against the Terrorcon's throat with a sickening thud, and Starscream ducked as Knock Out fired, shoving Breakdown back to the floor as he tried to rise._

_Another Terrorcon replaced its downed comrade, bearing down on Starscream and Breakdown while Knock Out cursed the charging weapon._

_The larger Decepticon was fast, throwing Starscream up and rising up to meet the Terrorcon, slamming a hammer straight through his chest. The Seeker gagged and vomited at the sight, that had been Galetone, he had been hopeless at gambling but always laughed it off_—

_Starscream viciously wiped the bile off his mouth. No no, he had to keep it together, he couldn't falter now..._

_The Seeker scrambled away as another Terrorcon fell where he just was, Megatron towering over her. Soundwave ripped off another's head behind him._

_More Terrorcons came, forcing everyone deeper into the room. The fighting further decimated the glass wall dividing the escape pods from the minor research labs._

_By this point the prototype had failed, apparently jammed or depleted of energy. Knock Out had taken to whacking Terrorcons with it, until one of them tore it out of his grip. Breakdown blocked the next tearing claw for Knock Out, and Starscream had thrown back his Energon prod to him._

_Distracted, the Seeker gagged as a claw came from behind and began to choke him._

_Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blurry Megatron sweep forward and strike. The Terrorcon moved, losing her arm instead of her head. At least it was the arm that choked Starscream._

_But even separated, the arm still strangled him, Starscream writhing against it on the floor._

_Soundwave swept down and helped pry the claw off Starscream's neck, throwing it away, only to have Megatron stomp on the living appendage._

_"Get down!"_

_Starscream, Megatron, and Soundwave turned to find Knock Out and Breakdown throwing them to the floor, Starscream catching a glimpse of Arcee throwing one more explosive charge their way, the first about to land..._

_For a few seconds Starscream saw nothing but black and heard nothing but the ringing in his audio receptors. He struggled up on all fours, opening his eyes to a tilted and blurred, smoking world. Starscream stood on legs that still shook, and he stumbled back, tripping and hitting something hard. Still he started to slip down it, and his claw reached for something to hold on to_—_it fell on something, and there was a neutral beep._

_Starscream's eyes snapped into focus as he heard a loud whirr, and found that all the escape pods were slamming back shut, including the ones that held his trinemates. Their lights shifted from red to green._

_There was another loud, high-pitched beep as the pods disengaged._

_Starscream twisted around to stop the launch procedure, only to have the escape pod control panel decimated by a round of laser fire from Arcee, one of her blasts grazing his cheek._

_"__**NO**__!" Starscream shrieked as he turned back around, rushing for his trinemates' pod, already sliding away_—

_The Seeker felt Megatron's large arms pull him away, narrowly missing laser blasts that now left scorch marks on the floor. More laser fire peppered around them, Arcee joined by reinforcements._

_"No no let go, let go_—_!"_

_Starscream's arms alternated from clawing at Megatron's to reaching for his trine's pod, they were sliding faster away now..._

_"There's nothing you can do for them now_—_!"_

_"Let go, frag you_—_!"_

_Starscream managed to gain some ground, so frantic and strong was his panic. Finally Megatron wrapped an arm around his throat and lurched him off his feet, bodily carrying him away._

_"No no no, please, Master, please, I beg of you, let me go, please, just let me_—_!"_

_His trine's pod broke away with a snap, the Nemesis sealing up behind it._

_Starscream's energy left just as quickly, Megatron roughly tossing his limp body behind their makeshift cover that had been the damned weapon's workstation. The Decepticon leader turned all his attention toward defending their position against the Autobots, one eye warily on the Terrorcons that struggled to get up, Arcee's explosives had hit them the hardest..._

_Knock Out took Starscream's shoulders again. "Stay down, all right?" Starscream stared blankly at the medic. Knock Out turned back, helping provide cover fire with Breakdown, Soundwave and Megatron...__**Megatron**__..._

_Seeing pure violet, Starscream lunged toward the Decepticon leader, uncaring of context or anything, he just had to make Megatron. Hurt._

_Soundwave threw him down, foot pressing down on his throat, Starscream struggling and raking his claws furiously down his leg. But Soundwave stood his ground, until Starscream lost consciousness_—

Starscream bolted awake, Soundwave's hand steadying him. The Seeker blinked, watching Soundwave's hand move toward the incision Knock Out had made in his body back at one of the Autobot bases. His optics snapped to the communication officer's facial shield. Text flitted by. 'I need to set up a temporary firewall blocking your spark link with Kate.'

Without another response, Soundwave inserted the firewall chip into Starscream's incision, the Seeker twitching slightly.

Starscream watched Soundwave return to Kate's side, inserting another firewall chip in her own Knock Out-made incision. He hooked one cable between himself and the dark Cybertronian on the med berth, the other to a computer touch pad. The pad flickered, and Soundwave started to rapidly type on it.

"You were barely out," Knock Out muttered, busy at his own station.

"What was Ratchet trying to do, exactly?" Starscream rasped out as he tried to drive away the nightmare-memory from his processor. He turned to Breakdown and Knock Out from his own position on a separate medical berth.

"Trying to see if he could use the electrical brain waves of humans to generate a Cybertronian spark," Knock Out answered in a blank voice as he worked, examining Starscream's own halved spark. "When it didn't work the first time, he tried going through different stages of the human life cycle, see if that made a difference..."

"What?"

"After I had you go after Kate, Agent Fowler told us seven humans had gone missing, with evidence that it was the Autobots behind their disappearance," answered Megatron as he entered the infirmary. "They ranged from the elderly to the young."

"Soundwave and I found them, dead from the experiment," Knock Out said in a low voice.

The Seeker closed his eyes, took a breath, then slowly said, "He must've thought my spark—"

But he shuddered; then tried once more to gather his thoughts. "He knew it could probably be split and not extinguish, given what he and the others at Omicron did," the Seeker began again, trying his best to keep his voice from cracking, keep it detached.

"And that it might activate the human brain waves, if he assumed or knew that they had shifted from the human...body to the Cybertronian one, and were just...trapped, in need of a catalyst." Starscream twitched, his voice growing higher as he started to babble, "But I'm certain—Ratchet had mentioned a time limit that was clearly—well, now it's clear—clearly in reference to the brain waves of previous test subjects, that they...faded, after a time, they're surely not still trapped in that—Kate's b—new body—"

"Soundwave would be able to detect anything of that sort," Megatron growled, and yet Starscream relaxed, slightly.

Megatron did not relax. He stared hard at Soundwave, busy trying to remove all of the Teletraan programming from the unconscious Cybertronian—from Kate Austen.

"So your half-spark is the only thing keeping her alive," Megatron finally said, his voice unreadable.

"It is the logical conclusion," Starscream rasped out. "She was...gone, until half my spark was inserted..."

"And how do you feel?"

"Better."

Megatron glared at Starscream.

"I'm not lying!" His Second-in-Command snapped, in a flustered voice that reached a new high pitch.

"It's a very obvious fib," Knock Out remarked as Breakdown gave him the cables.

"I am not!" Starscream continued to protest.

"It's far too soon after having your spark ripped in half—then your leg ripped off—"

Starscream looked down at his leg, aching and numb from the fresh reattachment job.

"—to be feeling better." Knock Out hooked up the cables to Starscream, despite his commander's low growl. "You'll probably feel better later—

especially under mine and Breakdown's expert care—but right this very instant? Doubtful."

Knock Out gestured to Breakdown, who flicked a switch. Starscream flinched as the cables jolted their first sensory wave over him.

"Now, how do you feel, Commander?" Starscream opened his mouth, glaring, but the medic cut him off. "And just FYI—"

"What?"

"It's a human turn of phrase, it means 'for your information—'"

"Oh, what they call an acronym—?"

"Yes yes, Herr Commandant, but now is not the time for another ramble of yours about the interesting things one finds in Earth linguistics—"

"You're the one who calls me 'Herr Commandant' and Breakdown 'mi amor—'"

"—anyway, back to my point: _for your information_, those cables are also connected to a lie detector program."

"...You're bluffing."

"He buffs, not bluffs," muttered Breakdown. Megatron rolled his eyes at his soldier's fascination with puns.

"Too right, Break. Now, are you willing to take that bet?"

Starscream rolled his optics with a sigh. "Whatever." Finally he said in a more steady, yet weary voice. "More than anything, I simply feel tired." The Seeker's optics snapped not to the medic, but to his master. "Happy now?"

"Hardly," Megatron grunted.

Neither Knock Out or Breakdown glanced away from the screen readouts. Still, Knock Out said in a dry, sarcastic voice, "Now, now, you two, stop with the dramatics, your concerns and reassurances for each other are much too sentimental for my infirmary."

Breakdown finally looked up, glancing at Starscream. "So, this might take a while—"

"It will," Knock Out said, still fixated on the readouts.

"—and since you're feeling tired, take a nap or something. A long one."

"Of course, I'll get right on that," Starscream snarled, flicking at one of the sensor cables hooked to him. Besides that discomfort keeping him up, he rather wanted to avoid another nightmare.

Knock Out stabbed a finger at a screen, his face full of mock glee. "Ah, see, sudden spike there—you just lied!"

Starscream muttered something angry and indecipherable, and Megatron resisted the urge to sigh. Instead he glanced back to Soundwave, still hooked up to Kate's new Cybertronian shell and typing rapidly away.

It wasn't a cortical psychic patch, where the user ended up more of an observant bystander in a deep immersion primarily meant to gather intelligence or to deal with severe mental trauma. Rather, it was one of its predecessor tech where the user could exercise some control, better suited to deprogramming.

The Decepticon leader also resisted the urge to rub at his eyes, exhausted.

_I just need Prime to return, and this will have been the __**perfect **__day._

Megatron's eyes narrowed at just how likely that option actually was. Prime was absent, not dead...

###

Ratchet stared.

"Hiya!" Skywarp chirped from Optimus' side, waving a friendly claw. His trinemate had his face firmly planted in palm. Skywarp glanced around the space. "Kind of a fixer-upper too, huh?"

The other Autobot officers were staring.

Bulkhead was the first to respond. "So...was Starscream part of a trine...?"

The two flyers before them looked like Megatron's Second-in-Command, though one was mostly violet and the other blue, yet both of their paint jobs bore small red stains. Upon closer inspection, it was clear their forehead apparatus differed too: the violet one's spilt into a 'V' shape, and the other was longer than that one and Starscream's, sloping farther back and twisting back and down and up, somewhat resembling a stylized lightning bolt. Facial markings were slightly different too, and both had matching violet optics, but still much of the frame shape and facial structure recalled Starscream.

"Oh yes, he was our littlest," Skywarp said, still wearing a grin, though now it no longer reached his violet optics. Thundercracker had removed his palm, his eyes narrowed and his arms folded.

"How _is_ our littlest trinemate doing, hmm?" Skywarp asked, starting to practically bounce on his heels. "You seem to know him, sir—?"

Arcee gestured to the taller 'Bot. "This is Bulkhead, and he just ripped your 'littlest' trinemate's leg off," she said in a dry voice.

"Hey!" Bulkhead snapped at Arcee, though he couldn't keep the bafflement out of his voice. If these were Starscream's trinemates, what were they doing here, and uncuffed?

"Ooh, really?" And Skywarp looked around, as if the younger Seeker would suddenly materialize. "Did you get to keep it?"

"No, the 'Cons took it back—"

Bulkhead shook his head, and turned to his leader.

"—um, Prime, what's going on here?"

"New allies," was Optimus' very clipped response.

"How?" Ratchet finally spoke, unable to keep his curious optics off the Seekers. "Last I heard, all the Terrorcons were deactivated—"

"—And dismantled? Not all, clearly," Thundercracker said in a quiet voice.

"Terrorcons?" Bumblee said in a series of rapid beeps, pointing to Thundercracker and Skywarp. "Them?"

Arcee sneered. "They may have the violet eyes and the build of a Seeker—"

"Well, we all just agreed we're Starscream's trinemates, so that's kinda obvious—"

Skywarp pointed out, randomly spinning a clawed finger around.

"—granted, a particularly fragile model—"

"Hey, I don't make fun of how you can't get away with blue like TC does—"

"—but Terrorcons couldn't talk. They just mindlessly attacked."

"Some had infusions of SynthEn mixed in." Ratchet inclined his head to the Seekers. "You two definitely did. Perhaps that eventually—"

"Maybe." Thundercracker shrugged. "We _were_ deactivated—Dark Energon ripped out of us, deprived of **our very life force**—"

Thundercracker's voice continued to rise, his jaw clenched.

"—all thanks to our 'littlest—'"

The blue Seeker's optics burned. Skywarp finally snapped out of his mirth, flinching as Thundercracker spat out the last word. The black-and-purple Seeker seemed to shrink, hugging his arms tight and looking wretched.

"—but we weren't dismantled. In the chaos of the fight on the Nemesis, we were thrown into an escape pod and blasted off, crashing on some random moon."

Skywarp did another rapid 180, as he grew hyper and fair-natured again. "Of course, we only figured that out afterward, seeing as we woke up in an escape pod thanks to Prime—"

"Apparently Starscream never found you, not even to lay your remains to rest." Optimus' comment was soft, but Skywarp flinched as if his audio receptors were deafened, and Thundercracker flexed his claws with a murderous look on his face. Arcee tensed, revving up her blaster though it remained at her side, but Thundercracker moved no further.

"So they were injected with another dose of Dark Energon and brought back online again, after being inactive for years. Perhaps hibernation gave them time to regain sentience," Optimus said, and irrestibably all optics fell on him and his smooth voice. "Perhaps it was the SynthEn mixed in, as Ratchet suggested."

Thundercracker nodded. "Yes, all wonderful theories. Or perhaps the second catalystic dose of Dark Energon and SynthEn upgraded us." The blue-and-silver Seeker gave a careless shrug. "Either way, we're here."

"And we're off—c'mon, TC, let's check the place out—!"

Before either Thundercracker or the Autobots could respond, Skywarp had grabbed him, and with a sudden pop and crackle of energy, disappeared.

While the younger 'Bots gaped, Ratchet was thoughtful. "So Skywarp retained teleportation, and Thundercracker—?"

"He also has his powers still," Optimus replied. Other than Ratchet, Optimus regarded his younger officers, who still had varying degrees of confusion and wariness. "Those Seekers have regained their sentience, but are much more...malleable, to my direction. That's all you need to know at the moment."

No one pressed the Prime further on the only reassurance of the duo's loyalty that he would currently give them. Especially when his optics slowly scanned the damage in the room.

"Now what happened here, exactly?"

Silent, no one moved. Finally Ratchet stepped forward and began to explain.

###

Soundwave's virtual self traversed Kate's audio-visual memory playback while chasing down segments of Teletraan code.

Following the coding signature, Soundwave's feet crunched on grass. He paused before a tree, looking up at it, briefly feeling as if he had shrunk. But this was a Mindscape, and a human one at that—he was more proportional to their size now. And in utterly foreign territory.

Two small dark-haired human twins swung from the tree, but Soundwave's sensors focused on the one with right blue eyes. It was nothing but Teletraan code.

That one tried to flee, but Soundwave reached up and deleted it before it could escape the tree. The remaining green-eyed twin—a young Kate—continued to play, as if nothing had happened.

Clearly, Teletraan's security protocol was on high alert and verging on desperation if it tried to pretend to be Kate, thinking to deceive him.

Soundwave left the small Kate playing in her tree as he followed the next segment of Teletraan. The communications officer felt a slight jerk in the pit of his chassis as the Mindscape suddenly shifted.

It was night now, and he was before a small house. The lights were on, and shouts rang out. Another little Teletraan-Kate ran before him toward the yelling, quickly opening and slamming the door. Soundwave dashed after it, bursting into the house. He ignored the strange sight of the door cracking and breaking beneath him, only for it to pass through him as it repaired itself.

Inside the Mindscape's house the shouting was louder, followed by the sound of a hit and a shriek. His nasal receptors picked up a strange thick smell; Kate's memory playback had even archived scent.

Hearing a small voice whimper from the corner, Soundwave's head snapped to it, disoriented for a moment. It reminded him of Laserbeak's own occasional distress in her sleep from a nightmare, only stopping when he drew her closer to his chest.

It was no Laserbeak, but a mop of dark curls curled up and crying louder as the sounds of strikes grew louder.

Turning away, Soundwave had his sensors scan again. He had to find the Teletraan code masquerading as Kate, he would not allow this memory playback to distract him any further...

The small Teletraan-Kate ran up the stairs, and Soundwave jumped the banister. The jerk in his chassis returned with greater intensity as the Mindscape shifted again, and he ended up landing back down on the house's ground level, now engulfed in a roaring fire.

Soundwave followed Teletraan's signature coding through the harmless memory of fire. Outside was the grown Kate riding away on a dark motorcycle.

Immediately he aimed his blaster for the back of the Teletraan-Kate's skull—until he realized the signature coding came from the vehicle, with its bright blue lights.

He shot out the Teletraan-motorcycle, deleting it instantly. Instead of the real memory of the motorcycle returning just as instantaneously as the door before, Kate was thrown off, rolling in the dirt.

Strange, perhaps breaking the pattern Soundwave had started to accept; still he made to move toward the next segment of Teletraan his sensors picked up. But Kate struggled up, and stared at Soundwave, utterly alert.

The communications officer froze as Kate's consciousness apparently recognized him. He knew self-awareness was imminent. It might even spark the failure of the anesthetic. Full consciousness could even crack or shatter the firewall currently between her and Starscream, which would...not be ideal, to say the least.

###

Thundercracker knelt before the human corpses that were still intact.

"They're smaller than the others," he observed, tapping each with a claw tip.

"I think they're sparklings?" Skywarp loudly whispered.

"Probably the equivalent—"

Thundercracker began, then growled when Skyarp teleported away. His trinemate wasn't gone long, returning with a shard of dark Energon.

"Does Prime know you have that?"

"Like something as small as this is worth his attention."

"There are cameras watching."

Skywarp made a show of waving to an invisible audience, grinning wide and baring his dental plates.

Thundercracker gave an exasperated sigh.

"You don't wanna see what this'll do?" Skywarp asked, nodding to the dead human sparklings.

"Could I stop you?" Thundercracker quipped, but he did not disguise the genuine interest in his voice.

The violet Seeker cracked the dark Energon shard in half, passing the new piece to his trinemate.

Thundercracker broke his own shard into two smaller halves, while Skywarp crouched by the smallest human and stabbed what seemed like its spark chamber.

The blue Seeker stabbed his two shards in the others: through the tallest human sparkling; and through the human sparkling with a long decoration sweeping away from its skull.

The dark Energon crackled through the human bodies, violet electricity arcing.

Thundercracker and Skywarp jerked and shot each other a look; they'd each felt a sharp burst of energy at the back of their processor, and His voice had grown louder. They thought that had morphed into screaming too (not His though), only to realize that wasn't in their processors.

The humans shrieked awake, though it wasn't long, soon dropping into frantic gasps.

Crouching down even closer to the children, Thundercracker and Skywarp watched with rapt attention and readiness to hold them back when they went on a rampage. They watched with a certain awe as their soft optics blinked, and found they were violet like theirs.

The reanimated humans made sounds, nothing that resembled snarls or roars. The smallest just breathed heavily; the tallest made rhythmic, harsh sounds; the one with the most skull ornamentation made quick sounds.

Skywarp blinked at them.

"Hey...doesn't it sound like two of 'em are ta—?"

Thundercracker cycled through the files Optimus had downloaded into their processors, the folder about Earth linguistics.

"Yes, that's speech," he told Skywarp, unable to keep the shock out of his voice. "The tallest is in English—cursing in English, the native tongue in this current region of the planet—and the one with the long decoration on its—"

Thundercracker cycled through the file on sex and gender in humanity, just skimming its heading.

"— her skull—"

Thundercracker found the example graphic and the term in his file.

"—the one with the long 'hair'—all three have hair, that's what's on their skulls—she's speaking Japanese."

Skywarp blinked again. He turned to his trinemate, truly whispering this time. "How is that possible—?"

Both the reanimated Seekers turned at the mingled shouts, finding the three reanimated human sparklings stumbling back from them.

But then that burst of energy widened in the back of Thundercracker and Skywarp's processors. They flinched, and the humans flinched, and unsteadily approached them, as if drawn to a magnet. Feeling a similar instinct, the two leaned toward the smaller figures.

The whisper of the Chaos Bringer grew louder in the trinemates' skulls, and they watched the humans grasp their heads, their soft violet eyes twitch, and wondered if they could hear Him too.

**A/N: I have been wondering for a while what would happen if Dark Energon mixed with a dead human, especially after learning Earth's/humanity's connection to Unicron. So, here's that theory written into fic. I've also wondered about sentient Terrorcons/Cybertronian zombies, so that theory was also written in with dead/undying/reanimated Thundercracker and Skywarp here in this Mirroverse. More details on the deal with the reanimated Transformers/humans as the fic goes along. And now "Inception" is crossing over, or is influential; "Inception" still seems like the latest incarnation of viscerally entering a dream. The flashbacks will eventually come together in one or two exposition/revelation scenes, and then will probably be followed by spin-off fic running concurrent to this delving into this Mirroverse's past. The gag with Knock Out calming Starscream and Megatron is inspired by obfuscobble.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Title: and the glass zone shatters**

**Chapter: Eleven**

**Summary: On this side of the mirror, the Decepticons have a higher tolerance for humans. The Autobots, on the other hand, don't really give much thought to the skin-jobs beneath their feet… [Shattered Glass/Mirrorverse Transformers Prime AU]**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers Prime or LOST (i.e. Kate Austen, Edward Mars, James "Sawyer" Ford).**

**Warning(s): violence, language**

**Rating: PG-13**

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait! This chapter was difficult to develop.**

**So...after watching "Crossfire" and "Nemesis Prime," the plot/character development in this fic just became more eerie. **

**Important: I fixed chapter four, apparently it was missing a big chunk of the chapter! Did everyone get the part about Starscream first waking up when captured and finding Ratchet at the end of chapter 4?**

**Please remember to leave feedback. Thank you editoress, nellasaur, wherearemychips and sweetsweetsorrow at tumblr for their feedback on this. Thank you to all the reviewers. Hope everyone enjoys the next chapter.**

**This also should be in continuity with my other mirrorverse!TFP fic written for the TF-Prime Livejournal community's August challenge, "it's science," unless noted otherwise.**

Chapter 11

Soundwave raised a claw as Kate's consciousness backed away.

"What—S-Soundwave? What are you doing here—what are _we_ doing here in Iowa—?"

The communications chief filed away for his own information that this was a memory of Iowa as he played back an old piece of audio from Jetfire, _'"A Mindscape is pretty much what it sounds like_—_the actual interior of a mind, not just physically, but on like every other level_—_mentally, possibly even spiritually_—_"'_

"Jesus Christ—"

The human ran her hands through her hair. Soundwave was still taller than her, but she was no longer an insect by comparison.

Kate seemed to notice the change in size, and immediately asked about that.

But time was short, there was no time to get into the intricacies of the Dreamscape and what a human's version of it was like and how that apparently affected a visiting Cybertronian. The flyer just shifted to Megatron's voice, _'"Soundwave, remove every scrap of Teletraan from her mind."'_

Text then flitted by on his screen, _'Ratchet had tried to override your consciousness with a copy of the Teletraan program, but an explosion caused by Knock Out and I disrupted the download. Teletraan is still in your mind, but fragmented now, each piece disguising itself as you and other figures in your memory playback. I have been tracking them down and eliminating them one by one.'_ Soundwave considered, then added, _'Now that your consciousness is self-aware, you may be able to sense them too, fight back even...'_

Breathing harshly, Kate slowly lowered her hands from her hair. "So you're saying you're in my mind right now, to get rid of a computer program that's trying to...reprogram me?"

Soundwave nodded. _'"Be calm,"' _he played back Megatron's voice. The text on his facial shield said, _'But your self-awareness is also a risk to the firewall I have put up to keep yours and Starscream's minds apart for the moment. But if you retain calm, any risk could be minimized.'_

The flyer was not reassured when the human stared at him as if he had not communicated in her regional language.

But there really was no more time. _'"C'mon,"'_ Soundwave repeated Knock Out's soundbite, quickly taking Kate's hand. He looked at her, so that she could see his text message, _'Stay with me, we have to finish Teletraan off quickly.' _ He continued to drag her away, his step fast, and she stumbled to keep up. _'Teletraan might have noticed your self-awareness as well, and may grow even more desperate_—_'_

"'Desperate?' It's a computer program, isn't it? How can it get d—?"

_'"It is programmed to defend itself,"' _Soundwave said with Starscream's recording. One of his tracking sensors suddenly spiked, and his own emotional alarm heightened as well; according to the sensors, the Teletraan code fragments were finally able to start consolidating, right now...

"How does it do _that _exactly—?"

Kate was cut off by her shout, and Soundwave held tight to her as they suddenly fell. For a moment he considered transforming, but no, a fall in a Dreamscape would not harm them, and Soundwave felt more combat-capable in bipedal form.

Soundwave and Kate landed roughly on metal. A glance around told Soundwave they were back in one of Ratchet's med labs, precisely the one they had just left hours ago. The two looked up to find—

The communications officer stilled as they looked up into the accurately sized Cybetronian shell Kate's consciousness had been transferred into. It towered over them, its optics glowing blue.

###

Trooper Shiv nervously entered the infirmary. He had volunteered to check up on Commander Starscream and the new human-Cybertronian hybrid again. He would return to the rest of his kin with any updates.

The Eradicon messenger watched Soundwave marginally stiffen at precisely the same moment Starscream mumbled something indecipherable in his recharge and turned over as much as he could with the sensor cables hooked to him.

Still, that was cause for alarm, and Knock Out and Breakdown looked up.

"What happened?" Shiv broke in anxiously, hovering at their shoulders.

"Hopefully nothing," Knock Out muttered as Breakdown brought up another window on their computer setup.

"And if it's something?" Shiv persisted, optics straying to the med-patch on Soundwave's chassis, finally landing on his Commander. A glance to his leg, welded back together.

"You really want to hope it's nothing," Breakdown tightly muttered.

Shiv shivered, resisted the urge to wrap his arms around himself as he watched Starscream mutter more in recharge, but move no further.

###

Soundwave released Kate as she moved to throw herself to the side; the flyer himself slid to the opposite side as the Teletraan-Cybertronian stomped down hard where they'd been. But curiously it continued onward, and started to shoot with an oversized human-made rifle that had just appeared in its claws.

"Where the hell did it get that gu—?"

Soundwave turned to the human, texted, _'Its manipulation over elements from your memory playback is growing, but you can probably do the same if you focus.'_

Kate shook her head, "Why isn't it firing at us...?"

Apparently the distance toward its target was long, for they finally heard a bullet slam against something. Simultaneously, one of Soundwave's alert systems notified him that his firewall had just taken a hit. And was taking more.

Immediately Soundwave transformed. He would need to gain height with this adversary.

"Wait!" Kate shouted, but the flyer blasted ahead.

Once Soundwave neared the Teletraan-Cybertronian, he fired. Fragments of code reunited as they were, this reconfigured Teletraan did not immediately fall like its smaller components from before. Soundwave kept peppering it with laserfire, betting on it eventually breaking off some fragments again and sending those to deal with him. If he could get the Teletraan-Cybertronian to divide itself at all, his objective would be made that much easier...

Soundwave tensed at the roar of an engine, but reacted quickly when he saw Kate's consciousness speed forward on that same dark motorcyle (minus the blue lights) and ram it into the back of the Teletraan-Cybertronian's leg. Soundwave swooped down and transformed mid-fall, burying his foot in the leg that was already starting to buckle from the crash.

The large Teletraan-Cybertronian fell, breaking and scattering into smaller Teletraan-Cybertronians that were Soundwave's current size, but still taller than Kate.

_'"Keep your focus!"' _ Soundwave blared Megatron's shout as Kate's Dreamconstruct-motorcycle began to flicker and tip precariously, the Teletraan-Cybertronians converging on her. _'"Mow them down!"'_

Soundwave dashed forward, cutting through the living Teletraan fragments as Kate's ride finally dissolved and she fell rolling to the floor.

He noticed some converge not on Kate, but toward each other—Soundwave instantly twisted toward them, he could not let Teletraan reconsolidate again—

Soundwave whipped out a cable in the direction of Kate's sudden scream. One of the Teletraan fragments held her by the throat, trying to finish its violent override. The Decepticon's cable stabbed through the back of its lower chassis, but other than stumbling a bit, it held fast to Kate, even though the human had found her footing and was trying to pull away.

It was then Soundwave realized this Teletraan figure was slightly larger than the others, some must've already reconsolidated in the chaos of battle...

Suddenly Soundwave was rammed, a barrage of Teletraans taking advantage of his distraction. His cable ripped, but he did not fall. Soundwave struggled to delete or otherwise get away from the Teletraans, he had to get to the one that held the human, he had to keep the firewall intact, he could not risk any of this pouring into Starscream's mind—

Kate screamed again, the firewall alert sounded three times more, and Soundwave activated his first alert to the outside.

###

"What was—?"

"Shut up, Shiv, and make sure Kate doesn't get up and try to kill us all," Knock Out calmly ordered while he waited for the alert to sound again in quick succession. "Breakdown, I need you to prep a secondary patch, in case Soundwave gives the right signal."

His partner nodded, immediately moving to ready the equipment. "And Lord Meg—?"

"Already on his way," Knock Out replied, his typing rapid and eyes glued to the computer screen.

The Trooper went to Kate's side, where her dark Cybertronian shell had started to struggle, trying to pull out her weapon arm—useless, unarmed and locked down as it was. The constraints held fast. But still she struggled, and Shiv understood taking precaution if only because the sight and sound of fingers clawing at the berth were unnerving.

"'Right signal?'" He asked, trying to shake off his anxiety. "Then what was—?"

"If Soundwave's alert sounds twice in rapid succession, one of us will patch in and join our communications chief in Kate's mind," said Megatron, answering Shiv's question as the door hissed open and shut. "This was only an early warning of the possibility he might need such assistance."

Megatron's eyes narrowed and Shiv reached out a claw as Starscream stirred, more violently this time.

"Soundwave's firewall—?"

"Might be in danger, yes."

"If it breaks, will Teletraan infect Starscream's mind too—?"

"Not if I can help it," Knock Out growled, his typing lightning-fast.

Behind his mask, Shiv blinked. "Soundwave actually gave you access to _his_ codes—?" He found the senior officer private with everything, including his work.

"To his firewall, yes, in case things went south and he couldn't refortify it himself, which is _now_—"

Shiv shivered as he felt his Lord tense at his side when they noticed Starscream's claw rake into his med berth.

"...Who's going in if—?"

The alert beeped again, two times in a row.

###

Soundwave broke away from the Teletraans, heading to defend the firewall.

He saw none of it, but heard Lord Megatron slice through solid matter, the gasp of the human's released breath.

The communications chief shifted to jet mode to close the distance, then back to bipedal mode. The Teletraans were too close to the firewall now, any attacks from his alternate mode ran too high a risk of damaging said firewall further. Soundwave concluded the best option was to again delete or repel them in hand-to-hand combat.

He focused on that, and ignored the sounds of Megatron and Kate behind him. For now.

###

"Kate. Kate Austen. _Katherine_," Megatron finally hissed the whole first name listed on the human's criminal record. Finally the human snapped a little out of her shock, looking up at Megatron as he continued to fire at the onslaught of Teletraans rushing them. "Do you know of Dreamconstructs—?"

"What are—?"

"Summoning an object via your will when in a Mindscape—within your head—say, a gun for one—"

"I...I kinda did before, with...with a motorcylce—but it broke apart!"

"If you focus, it won't." Megatron fired another shot. "Try again."

For a moment the only real sounds were that of Megatron's shots sizzling through Teletraans, Soundwave fighting them at the firewall, and the human's soft curses as she tried to concentrate.

Finally there was a gun click. "Got—got it."

"Good. Provide me with cover fire. Do not aim anywhere close to the firewall," Megatron ordered, then dashed forward with his blade, cutting through the Teletraans. His sensors identified them as such—he focused on just those readings, trying to ignore how each of them had taken on the form of the human's current Cybertronian body. It was an...unpleasant and currently untimely reminder of a possible action he might have to take.

Starscream had insisted he was fine, had finally confessed to his exhaustion; Knock Out had not been able to conclude anything about what the effects of living with only half a spark were yet, especially not with the recent crisis popping up. But if there were severe side effects...well, they did have the other half of Starscream's spark.

The Seeker had been equally insistent that the human had not revived until she had his half-spark. And yet if it really came to choosing between his Second-in-Command and this human, the decision was clear...

Megatron felt the unpleasant feeling in his chassis grow as Katherine shot another Teletraan, giving him an opening to take it down for good.

###

Soundwave deleted the last Teletraan fragment, and jerked at Kate's startled gasp.

The communications chief shifted to jet mode and blasted over to the human and Megatron.

"What is it?" Megatron asked, closely watching the human massage her throat. He briefly glanced at Soundwave's transforming and landing before them on his feet.

"I just...just suddenly feel...lighter, I dunno..."

Megatron glanced to Soundwave, who nodded. The older Decepticon then said, "Teletraan has been cleared from your mind now; you must be feeling the effects of that."

"Yeah, okay, that makes sense, I guess...what now?"

"Time to wake up," Megatron said, and Soundwave sent the last solitary alert to the outside.

###

When Megatron activated again within his own mind, the first thing he heard was high screaming and whimpering.

Breakdown quickly released him from the equipment, then joined the medic at the dark Cybertronian's side.

Megatron watched Knock Out try to soothe Kate—Katherine. The medic had unlocked her restraints.

"Easy, easy, you're...alive, safe now..." Knock Out said in a low, hesitant voice.

The Decepticon leader looked to Starscream—still asleep, the Trooper Shiv watching over him. He glanced to Soundwave, who had unhooked himself, and already typing out the report on the recent mission's completion.

Megatron's optics snapped back to Katherine, when she finally managed words. "...can't...can't feel..."

"You don't feel anything?" Breakdown asked her quietly.

The sound of Katherine's vents cycling rapidly was audible to everyone. Megatron's eyes narrowed.

Unsteadily, a claw-tipped hand went to her chassis. "I...my heart's still beating..."

Megatron's first thought was 'sparkbeat,' but Primus bless he had enough tact to know that was not the thing to say.

He and everyone conscious in the room watched her hand drop, begin to scratch at the medical berth, slide her legs up and down it. "...can still feel this, but...but..."

Her legs stopped, curled close to her chest, and she touched her feet, ending in one solid point. "I don't have—"

Then she stilled, and straightened up, looking directly at Megatron. "—you—you have...toes? On your feet?"

Megatron tilted his head at her, resisting the urge to glance at his feet. He did take a step forward. "I have never regarded them as such."

"I mean they like...break apart—only in two like prong things—no, they're cloven, like a goat's..."

"What's a goat?" The Trooper asked. Shiv jerked when Starscream stirred.

"It's a type of animal native to Earth," the Seeker murmured as he groggily blinked up at the surprised Trooper, then turned to the rest of the group in the med bay. "Why were you talking about goats?"

Shiv immediately answered his commander, "Kate said Lord Megatron's feet are cloven like a goat's."

Megatron arched a brow as the Seeker peered closely at his feet. His second-in-command seemed to be regaining his energy to be so observant, though part of it still seemed to be a groggy daze focusing on the oddest things.

"She has a point—"

Megatron caught Starscream's eye.

"—Sir," the Seeker finished softly. He looked at the dark Cybertronian, still curled up on her berth. Starscream opened his mouth to say something—then closed it and sank deeper down on his own berth, looking drained.

Knock Out walked back to Starscream's berth, while Breakdown remained by Kate's. Trooper Shiv reluctantly stood back and joined Megatron's side. When Megatron looked, he saw Soundwave turn back to his computer and continue typing, no longer observing Starscream's return to consciousness.

Megatron could not hear Knock Out's quiet words to Starscream—probably more questions on how his body felt. As the medic looked over Starscream more closely, he called to the other berth.

"You know, Kate, I could alter your feet, to have toes—"

"_Knock Out_!" Megatron snapped in a low hiss, and to the medic's credit, he had immediately looked alarmed by his own lack of tact, if still too late.

The dark Cybertronian immediately fled the med berth, and Breakdown watched her closely but did not move to pursue her. Megatron felt some gratification in his soldier's caution—but then he knew Breakdown should have some idea on how to deal with edgy, traumatized patients, if only from his own personal experience...

Kate stopped some distance away from all of them, then called, "Is there a door? Is there a door in this—?"

"Yes, there's a door here in the infirmary," Knock Out said as he left Starscream's side, slowly approaching Kate, showing off his unarmed and untransformed hands. "I apologize, I didn't mean—I only wanted to try to make you more comfortable in your new b—with your new situation."

"What _is_ my situation!" The dark Cybertronian snapped, and Megatron observed the younger officers and trooper flinch, except for Soundwave. The communications chief had further stilled, before starting the recording, starting with a playback of Starscream's voice.

_'__"What was Ratchet trying to do, exactly?..."'_

###

Optimus Prime glanced at the security cameras' live feed. One screen sent him down to one of the labs.

Outside his destination, he heard the low murmur of conversation. A human girl's high voice.

"Seriously guys, we need—"

Optimus entered with a polite cough, and the quiet conversation stopped. Skywarp whirled around, all smiles, while his trinemate looked over his shoulder, looking bored. Optimus closely watched the small human children recoil and scurry behind the Seekers' legs.

He noted how all of them had violet eyes.

"Hiya Prime! This is—"

Skywarp stopped, then laughed as he twisted around, finding the humans. "What are you three doing there?"

Thundercracker rolled his eyes, then firmly shoved the humans forward with his foot. All three of them looked up at Optimus with varying levels of alarm, interest, and even shreds of recognition...

"This is Jack Darby—"

Skywarp pointed to the tallest boy with dark hair, whose eyes were narrowed and face empty.

"—Miko Nakadai—"

A finger stabbed at the only girl, who looked up at him with large wide eyes and gaping mouth.

"—and last and smallest but not least, Rafael Esquivel!"

One final flourish over the youngest boy, who kept rapidly blinking up at the Autobot leader. Optimus remembered quickly glancing at his photo while beginning to review Ratchet's more recent files during his absence, which had showed the human child with glasses.

The humans retreated behind Skywarp, arms covering and shielding each other.

The one called Jack shouted up at the Seekers, "Seriously, like Miko was saying, we need clothes!"

Optimus felt some amusement at another occurrence of culture clash between Cybertronians and humans.

Thundercracker rolled his eyes again with a sigh. "Prime, are their clothes still here?"

"Let me check," said Optimus, and then he internally commed Ratchet.

For his part, Ratchet showed no surprise in his voice at the request when he answered the negative, the clothes had been disposed of when the human subjects expired.

"I'm afraid they were destroyed," Optimus answered, and the humans groaned. He watched the reanimated Seekers closely; both looked...sympathetic, in varying levels of intensity.

"I'll get you new clothes right away," Skywarp promised, crouching down and gently patting all three humans with one bounce of his palm.

Thundercracker snorted. "How?"

"Express shopping via teleportation!" Skywarp beamed as he sprang back up and gently punched Thundercracker's shoulder. Then the purple Seeker blinked, and whirled back to Prime. "Sir, where's the best shopping on this planet?"

Optimus made the proper arrangements for Skywarp's trip. He alerted the rest of his army not to disturb Thundercracker and the humans, after moving them to their new quarters.

"Prime, could I not just—?"

"You have yet to fully deal with more pressing matters, Ratchet, such as the spacebridge malfunction. Do not doubt I have forgotten your guilt in _that_."

"...Yes, Prime."

"You may review the security footage, but you are not allowed to meet the humans face-to-face until I give permission."

Chastised, Ratchet refocused on other matters, while Prime continued to catch up on what he missed, and waited for Skywarp's return.

**A/N: Oh man Soundwave, so difficult for me to write. I think I finally figured out how to identify Soundwave's speech. At some point I'll have to go back and edit all of his speech in previous chapters. And again, eerie how "Nemesis Prime" is implying that Silas' mind will be uploaded into Breakdown's Cybertronian body, given what's done to LOST's Kate here. **


End file.
